Revolution
by Watt0-101
Summary: Sophie Sparks has quite a few things she prefers to keep on the downplay. One; her last name. Two; her estranged Uncle. Three; her unusual intelligence. And four; the motorbike that she had just recently acquired and repaired. Follow Sophie on her journey of self discovery and realisation of alien life, the Autobots.
1. Beginnings

Chapter 1 Beginnings

* * *

Author's Note:

_Very first fanfic!_

_Let me know how I did :)_

_Also, as you all know, I don't own anything apart from my OCs._

* * *

There comes a time in a person's life where everything comes to a standstill.

A stop.

A time where everything they knew or thought they knew changed forever.

And at that time...

That stormy night...

_...it was raining like hell, _Sophie thought bitterly, and then swore as a large bullet of rain hit her in the eye.

"Ack!" she exclaimed as her vision blurred yet again and she felt her feet loose friction with the ground; arms cart wheeling uselessly in the air as she fell back onto her ass.

Sophie caught a throaty laugh that was barely heard against the rumbling of thunder. Using both hands, she pushed the soaked strands of straw-like hair away from her face and glared in Uncle Rob's general direction. Coincidentally, the sky suddenly lit up with a crack of lightening; the light reflecting eerily off the jagged shards of scrap metal and rusted down cars. A medium sized figure with a bulging stomach was briefly highlighted before the lightening rolled away into thunder.

"Come ON, Sparky!" he roared with his croaky voice, obviously grinning, "Stop messin' 'round!"

Sophie growled as she yanked herself from the mud; she could feel the sediment weighing down her once-kind-of-white-volleys as she began to pluck her way through the wreckage once again. Her head ached tightly between the eyes and she wasn't in the mood to deal with this crap."Says the _idiot_ who wanted to come here in a _lightening_ storm!" she yelled back, squinting her eyes against the rain, attempting to spot anything useful in the closest pile of discarded metal parts.

"What's the worst tha' could happen?!" he laughed again.

"Oh, _yeah_. What could _possibly_ happen in a dump filled with _electrical conductors_!" Sophie tried to illiterate, anger bubbling inside of her, but the sharp wind snatched away her words. As if to prove her point, however, a flash of light split the sky and struck the ground not far from their location.

_BOOM_

The earth shook and they were both blinded.

"SHIT!"

"GUD_DAM_!"

A heavy rumble of thunder rolled away and Sophie blinked; not able to hear anything except the ringing in her ears and the panicked beat of her heart. She shook her head, the ringing slowly fading away and looked back up at Uncle Rob who was still standing on top of the scrap heap. Both of them frozen, staring at each other in shock, before Uncle Rob began to crack up, lifting his fat arms up to the heavens and yelling "Bring it!" in his stupid ass hillbilly accent, exhilarated.

Sophie lost it. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" She screamed in frustration, " I'M GOING TO KILL YOU IF THIS STORM DOESN'T KNOCK YOU DEAD!", trying to heave up a chunk of brick and blindly throw it at him.

It missed, of course. Strength and grace had never been her strong point. On cue, Uncle Rob snorted another laugh like the pig he was and continued to clamber through the maze of junk, disappearing from view.

Sophie pressed both of her palms against her throbbing forehead, hard, before swerving away from the pile of trash she was inspecting to find him. "That fool," she muttered before stopping in her tracks.

There was a peculiar tugging sensation deep in her chest. It was faint, barely even susceptible, but it was there.

Sophie closed her eyes, and silently debated with her voice of reason, before sighing and turning to where the line was weakly pulling her.

She followed the tugs with practiced ease as they grew in strength, now feeling as though a thread was towing her through the labyrinth of metal bones. She glanced back once, a little hesitant to leave the idiot to his own devices, but continued on. She was getting closer; dark dialect of a foreign language was now wiggling across her peripheral vision.

Then she saw it.

* * *

Uncle Rob was waddling happily through the torrents of rain; while not having found much useful machinery yet, he was sure Sparky would spot something good for him. Nevertheless, he kept a wary blue eye out for other good for nothing scavengers, even though most would be too chicken-shit to brave the elements like him. Feel that wind! Breath that _air_! He would have to tell Sparky to quit being such a tight ass; she didn't know what she was missing.

Rob blinked from his thoughts as the sound of shifting metal caught his attention... And speak of the _devil _here she was now! Digging through a pile of rusted ground pegs for her dear old uncle.

He saddled up sneakily beside her, squinting down at her usually tall frame, and watched her shoveling through the scrap almost feverishly, putting aside the occasional part she deemed important enough to spare. "What ya' find?" he boomed across the howl of the wind.

She barely spared him a glance, suddenly gotten a good hold of something beneath the wreck. She dug her feet more firmly into the muck, bared her teeth, and heaved.

Rob, of course, observed her efforts for several minutes before clamping a meaty hand on her shoulder and pulling her and whatever she was grasping backwards.

Sparky gasped and fell back as a metal carcass landed on top of her, causing a mini cascade of nails and pegs to bounce down the pile.

Rob looked at her, let out a snort, then evaluated the solid piece of hardware she still gripped, stroking his superb beard thoughtfully. Then he shrugged. "What's with the crap?"

It was a motorcycle, or used to be. Both tires were bust and most of the casing and components were missing or seemingly torn out-

"-but the framework underneath still intact," she finished for him, little tike probably reading his mind.

Uncle Rob then paused and studied her suspiciously; he was always suspicious when she wasn't yelling at him. It meant she was up to something.

Rob waved a hand dismissively. "Still not worth it; it'll take time and money ta' fix that junk, and time and money is exactly why we're out here. We aren't lookin' for a bike anyways, Sparky-"

"-Sophie," she corrected automatically, then shook her head, frowning, "Look, Rob, I can make this work, you know I can and you don't even have to lift a finger."

He waited, considering.

Encouraged, she continued. "Think of it as...as a way for me to gain more experience; just a little repair project, nothing serious. And it won't interfere with my work at the shop." she added quickly.

Rob took his time, umming and arring, shifting his weight from one foot to another and scratching his stomach through his white singlet, all of which was drenched from the storm still raging around them. Then he smiled, and they swapped roles; Sparky looking instantly suspicious. "Sure," he agreed with a careless shrug.

She shifted a little from her position on the ground, hovering over the motorcycle a little protectively. "But...?"

His grin grew. "But you av' ta' drag it out of here by yereself,"

Her expression dropped like a stone. "What?" she spluttered, but Uncle Rob was already casually walking away whistling innocently as he went. Which was quite a feat considering the weather he thought.

"But you know I can't-" she started indignantly, but then stopped. She sighed and began again in a lower tone, "You _have_ to leave the trailer here, alright? Right? _Uncle Rob_!"

And then he was gone.


	2. Welcome Home

Chapter 2 Welcome Home

Sophie was exhausted.

It had taken hours for her to drag the corpse of that damn motorcycle through the mud and the rain and the lightening and the wind and...yeah. Not to mention having to keep a constant eye out for the old codger who patrols around Banana's only dump with an axe and rifle in hand.

And did she just say Banana? Why yes she did.

To be more specific, Sophie lived in Dululu, a small town in Central Queensland, Australia, in northern Banana Shire. And when she says a _small_ town, she means small as in a population of 32 small. Its small.

Thankfully, after the grueling hours of hauling the bike, Sophie had discovered that Uncle Rob had the common decency to leave the trailer on the outskirts of the dump. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, he had taken off with the truck instead, leaving her to roll the trailer back to their garage during the early hours of the morning.

It was now about 6 in the morning and the sun was beginning to rear its head over the horizon, spilling warm golden light around the lone figure trudging on the empty road. The thunderous clouds had long since disappeared, leaving the bitumen wet and deep puddles on the side of the road. The insects where starting to chirp as she monotonously shuffled past the same scraggly trees, small shrubs and dying yellow grass, dragging the faded white trailer behind her.

She sighed for twenty third time and glanced down at her damp cloths, trying to find solstice now that her headache had somewhat receded. Sophie couldn't help feeling a little pissed though. She was coated in thick layer of mud, her old knee-cut shorts and grey shirt still clung uncomfortably to her skin and she was pretty sure her hair was doing something funky. She already had the luck of being passed by a car with a family of tourists inside on their way to Banana; she could practically _feel_ their stares as they observed the crazy girl with bare feet and a trailer. Her volleys were in with the motorcycle.

Uncle Rob was going to get it.

Eventually, she arrived at their garage at 7 and the sun was forcefully growing stronger. Sophie glanced up at the tacky hand-painted sign that read: **'THE WORKS'** that sat proudly on top of the faded green building surrounded by bush and nearly collapsed right there in fatigue.

However, she froze in the middle of sitting down when a young women with spiky multicolored hair and black leather pants strode from the opened roll-up doors. Sophie blinked and her eyes moved from the women to the pristine Harley Davison that was inevitably sitting in the driveway. The young women smirked knowingly at her with dark full lips.

Sophie sighed again and completed her action of sitting down on the pavement with a huff. "Angel," she greeted.

"Sophie," Angel responded with a nod, then eyed Sophie's condition with a raise of a single, perfectly shaped eyebrow. "Had fun?"

Sophie blew out a breath and nodded slowly, then shook her head. "Not really."

Angel treated her to another sneer, crossing her elaborately tattooed arms against her chest. "Uncle Rob?"

"Yes,"

"Thought so. Gonna give it to him?"

"Yes,"

She suddenly laughed loudly, and startled Sophie again with her child-like voice. It was quite the contrast.

Angel walked over and grabbed her hand, pulling Sophie up with her surprising strength. "Thanks," she muttered, feeling decidedly unkempt in front of the shorter women.

"No probs!" she grinned and slapped her shoulder, making Sophie wince slightly. "Watching you and Rob is like comedy gold, you know? Whole town loves it."

"Well, at least someone's enjoying it."

Angel laughed too loudly again, even though what she said wasn't particularly funny. Her dark brown eyes looked unfocused. "I guess you're looking for him, huh? He's in the back singing to himself again. Plenty of heavy weapons lying around if you want to give him a good _whack_," she said brightly and made a strange motion with her pale hands.

Sophie turned her attention back to Angel and studied her face, and then her hands. Her pupils large and round, darting back and forth, and her hands were shaking slightly before she wrapped them around her elbows when she noticed Sophie looking. Sophie sighed. "Ange-"

"It wasn't much," she interrupted exasperatedly, rolling her eyes, before continuing quickly and unnecessary. "Had a falling out with that dick I told you about. Just needed a little to perk me up, is all."

Sophie squinted at her and Angel threw her hands up and growled "You can't talk!" before hoping onto her Harley, revving the engine loudly, and making a quick getaway down the road.

Sophie was both amused and worried at the same time as she watched her friend's colorful un-helmeted head disappear from view. The stimulants Angel probably took weren't going assist her in navigating the road either. Although, Sophie really couldn't put her down for it. She was many things, but not a hypocrite. But that didn't mean she had to like it though.

"That crack-head is gonna kill 'erself, one day she will," croaked a very familiar, and irritating, voice. Sophie stiffened, and then turned her head slowly to glare at a very clean and freshly dressed Uncle Rob, puffing nonchalantly on his cigarette. "Lucky we never picked up stuff like tha', eh?"

Sophie had to make a visible effort not to wring his fat neck right there. She took a breath, clenched and unclenched her hands before snatching the cigar from his mouth, slapping the back of his stupid head, and stalked inside, leaving him and her motorcycle on the driveway.


	3. The Strangeness

Chapter 3 The Strangeness

* * *

Author's note:

_If anyone is some sort of mechanic and reading this story, then I sincerely apologise for the inaccuracy of any of the technical terms I am attempting to use. lol. _

_Anyway, hope you guys enjoy it!_

* * *

An hour and very hot shower later, Sophie was leaning on the work bench dressed in the cleanest white shirt she could find and her work fatigues which were never clean at all. They looked a lot like prison jumpsuits actually, only a dark green like the color of The Works instead of a fluro orange.

She was staring at the motorcycle that she had hauled into her workspace, contemplating it. It had been surprisingly heavy, she remembered, heavier than it should of been. And now by taking a closer look she discovered that the internal components were unusually compact, not to mention the blue colored stains that had apparently failed to be washed away by the rain. Also, after being stuck in the dump for so long, she expected there was going to be a significant amount of rust. There wasn't any. Not that she was complaining.

Before doing anything though, she scraped off a sample of the blue substance with a scalpel and put it in a test tube for later. Her mind buzzed with possibilities and methods of re-construction, but had to stop herself to focus on the task at hand and picked up the crowbar.

The Works was a garage big enough to hold several cars, but most of that space was taken up by either large pieces of machinery, tools, her inventions or Uncle Rob's crap. The floor was a typical oil-stained concrete with a yellow line painted neatly between the two roll-up doors, dividing the room.

Uncle Rob was now over that line as he stood watching Sophie carefully remove the casing of motorcycle with the crowbar. He was stroking his redneck handle-bar mustache again, trying look sophisticated. Sophie ignored him until he finally spoke. "You wanted tha' thing tha' badly, eh?"

She glanced at him while she took off last the piece of black casing, revealing the dark grey engine and other mechanisms she didn't seem to recognize. "Yes."

"Why?" he asked and twirled the spanner in his hand, nearly dropping it.

She remembered the tugging sensation, and then shrugged while considering reverse engineering to assist in restoration. "Interested me, I suppose." she answered, and then paused and looked pointedly at the yellow line in the middle of the garage. "Did we not have an agreement, Uncle?"

He sighed and rolled his thick shoulders back. "Come oooon, Sparky-"

"-Sophie-"

"-None of my junk 'as crossed tha' line, 'as it?"

Sophie now stared at him pointedly, and he huffed, waving his calloused fingers around before shuffling back to his side of the garage and switching the old radio on. The side of her strict mouth quirked up as she watched him retreat before returning to the bike.

What she discovered in those few hours was extremely..._intriguing_.

She spent the first hour just trying to nail the layout of the machine; drawing sketches and scribbling down notes with a blunt pencil on a notepad. It was strange; in a single glance it looked as though there wasn't anything unusual about the bike at all. But through a bit of digging, Sophie easily found that this was not the case. In theory, everything about the motorcycle was wrong; it had the basic structural requirements covered, but the engine lacked many essential parts, such as an intake valve, a rocker arm, coolants etc.

Sophie mused over this information while using c-clamps to reset some unnecessary pistons, ignoring the tell-tale signs of a head-ache that steadily developed as she worked. Sophie was in her zone; the clank of tools, the steady whirl of a small drill, even Uncle Rob's unfortunate singing with the softly scratching radio. This is exactly where she had spent most of her life.

She appreciated the comfortable atmosphere as her mind rejected pieces of information as quickly as it accepted them, the occasional string of alien language crawling across her vision. Equations that had no answer, a story that didn't fit, a component that she had never seen before yet felt so familiar with. A strange pressure built in her chest and she knew that this wasn't just any motorcycle. She knew what she had to do.

* * *

Uncle Rob was sleeping peacefully in his cluttered room, dreaming about gorgeous women and ham sandwiches , when a loud _BANG _made him snort awake.

He sniffed and spat in the little bin beside his bed, before squinting at the sounds coming from the garage and then at the electronic clock beside him. 1:00 am. Sparky must be up working again.

He groaned as he rolled slowly out of his cot, not bothering to put on his boots or covering his bright pink boxers as he stumbled over to the door that led directly into the garage. He was pushing down the handle of the door when something caught his keen eyes. Unnatural rays of blue light flickered through the gap between the floor and the bottom of the door. Welding torches didn't make that color, nor did they produce the frantic, crackling sound that radiated from Sparky's side of the garage. Rob cautiously pushed open the door.

The _creak_ of hinges was lost in the catastrophe of noise that assaulted his ears; a seemingly random high-pitch squealing sound that was constantly being broken and distorted by weird cracks that were similar to electricity. Rob flinched at the volume and shied slightly away from the intense light that inflicted his eyes.

On the opposite side of the garage, Sparky stood with her shadowed back to him. In her arms were two thick cables that she continued to awkwardly press against what seemed to be a generator, causing an eruption of blue sparks to shower around her tall, strong figure. The glow of the light-show reflected eerily off the edge of her protective mask; shielding her skin and expression from view, making her seem inhuman and unaffected by the harsh, tortured cries and screeches around her.

Uncle Rob was frozen where he stood as he unwillingly listened to that terrible high pitch scream, zaps, and groans. Right then, just at that moment, he, the mighty Robert J. Clementine, was afraid of Sophie Sparks.

But then there was a abrupt crescendo of noise and the machine Sparky was working on started to _expand_ with an long, unearthly groan, stretching almost painfully before receding slowly back into its shape. It struck Rob on how disturbingly similar it was to an inhale and exhale of breath. Sparky then dropped the live wires she was holding in her gloved hands and walked quickly over to the power outlet on the wall and switched it off. The electrical fireworks display immediately ceased and Sparky peeled her protective mask away from her sweaty face. And that was it.

They stood there for what felt to be quite a while. In the sudden silence, Uncle Rob could easily hear the huffs of Sparky's labored breathing. Eventually, he tore his gaze away from the seemingly normal motorcycle to see her staring right back at him. Her blue eyes seemed to glow slightly as they silently evaluated him before flickering away. She stalked rigidly over to the first aid cabinet and spoke in an oddly strained voice, "Enjoying the show?"

Uncle Rob didn't answer straight away; watching Sparky carefully as she fumbled through the cabinet, bottles of medicine clinking as she pushed them out of the way. Her shoulders were shaking and her feet restlessly shuffled back and forth, as if she couldn't keep her body still for longer than 5 seconds. "One heck of a display," he commented warily.

She snorted and then found what she was looking for. Sleeping pills. Uncle Rob was pretty sure the recommended dose said two but Sparky just downed four before he could say anything. She sniffed and gripped the edge of the bench, knuckles going white before turning around to face him. The straw hair that was escaping wildly from her messy bun framed her tense face and narrowed eyes.

"What the hell was tha' about?" Uncle Rob asked before she could say anything, gesturing wildly towards the bike. "Anotha' _invention_ of yours?"

Sparky glanced at the bike quickly, then at her pile of old and unsuccessful inventions, before swiveling back to him. Her body moved with her eyes. She shrugged, hands twitching. "Sure." she answered and popped another pill prior to moving around the room, picking up scattered tools and pieces of paper with scribbles of strange writing on them. She shoved everything unto the work bench and sorted through them.

"What jus' happened in 'ere?" Rob continued, now making his way over to the bench and picking up the bottle of tablets, frowning down at them. "Didn't I ge' rid of these..."

"Progress happened, Uncle." she said and then trailed off into an odd series of clicks and whirs before she abruptly slapped herself, making Rob jump slightly. She then calmly nodded at the sleeping tablets in his hand as she shelved the scraps of paper, absently catching a stray floating strip without looking as she continued to speak. "Angel," she stated as in explanation, "She dropped it off today. It should start to work in about thirty minutes."

Uncle Rob scowled and tucked the bottle away into the pocket of his pink boxer shorts. He knew it was a wasted action though; Sparky would always acquire more. "Guess I should be grateful tha' it ain't that other shit Angel deals, eh?"

Sparky began to cautiously remove a glass slide with a blue smear from underneath her microscope-thing without saying anything. Uncle Rob's eyes narrowed. "Right? Sparky-"

"Soph-"

"_Sophie_,"

That got her attention. Her head snapped around and she stared at him. He really hoped that she wouldn't remember that; she'd never let it go. "Oh...no..." She murmured, looking a bit dazed. "Those don't really give me what I need,"

Uncle Rob's eyes were slits as he gave her what he liked to call his Ultimate Customer-Money-Wrangler stare. "Annnnd you would know 'ow?"

She blinked at him blankly for a moment. Then her face suddenly re-animated as if she just realized he was there. "Oh! No, no, of course not." She said quickly and looked at him worriedly, and then over to the motorcycle. She sighed and rubbed her nose. "Um, ah, I think... I think I going to...to go to sleep," she finished lamely and pointed vaguely towards her room.

Uncle Rob watched her hunched back until it moved across the garage and disappeared behind the door. Sighing, he scratched the top of his balding head before regarding the motorcycle closely. It didn't look much like a bike at all now; its entire casing had been removed and dumped over in the corner. It also hummed slightly; a blue light now emanating faintly from the depths of the machine. Rob didn't have a clue what Sparky did to it, but it somehow _felt _a little different from before.

Unnerved, but of course not frightened, the mighty Robert J. Clementine took his sorry ass back to bed.


	4. Work

Chapter 4 Work

* * *

Author's note:

_I kind of feel like it's going too slow, but I don't want Sophie to somehow instantly assume that she's in the presence of a giant alien robot..._

_Anyway, things should start picking up in the next chapter. Enjoy!_

* * *

Sophie had one hell of a headache.

The next morning, she had woken up at six per usual, stepped out of bed, and then nearly died. Needless to say she slept in for another hour before Uncle Rob started to bang against her door with a hammer, yelling something about customers and her 'ruddy machine' taking up too much space.

Her bones practically creaked as she stumbled though the door, still dressed in the work clothes she had worn the previous night. The morning light that seeped into the workshop stabbed her eyes as she walked stiffly over to the medicine cabinet and searched lethargically for the aspirin.

Sophie hooked the bottle with a finger and ignored the curious looks coming from the customers, whom were currently being haggled by Uncle Rob for an outrageous sum of money for their broken-down RV that was sitting on the driveway. Tourists probably.

"-see it's a very complicated process, ya' see? Ta' put it in terms ya' can understand, your beloved aw-toe-ma-bil has overheated in hotness of the day," Uncle Rob explained, gesturing to the general facilities' temperature.

Sophie swallowed a tablet and went to stand by her motorcycle to watch Uncle Rob dive into the depths of his vocabulary, expertly weaving a justification for the tourist's car trouble while still attempting to sound modest yet brilliantly intelligent. The corners of her mouth curled up, as Uncle Rob was neither of those things, but the strangers seemed to be lapping it up.

At the end of his little speech, Uncle Rob's shoulders drooped and he rubbed his neck, looking awkward. "Now, I hate ta' do this to ya'...but tha' repairs are un-_for_-tunatly expensive." he sighed. "But without 'em... I don't think your aw-toe-ma-bil is goin' anywhere."

The man and women, whom were both wearing bright and clean cloths, looked at each other despairingly. Sophie's suspicions were confirmed as she observed them. Definitely tourists. Locals would know that Rob was a born opportunist that would wrangle every cent they had if he could. Besides, they looked too pale and dirt-free to be from around there anyway.

Sophie leaned slightly around them to peer astutely at the large, white Fleetwood Discovery. Two young kids were lounging in the front seats looking bored, staring blankly out from the dust-covered windows and throwing bits of popcorn at each other.

Sophie smirked and passed Uncle Rob and the husband and wife to get to the RV. "Don't pay him a thing," she told them as she walked by and Uncle Rob frowned crossly at her. A car's engine usually over-heats when left stationary or in slow-moving traffic, and this RV had obviously been travelling along the empty highway at a good pace.

She soon tuned out the bewildered stares from the two adults, Uncle Rob's bickering, her head-ache and the children's inquisitive looks as she removed the RV's dirty bonnet and inspected the battery. It only took her a second.

"Your battery is dead," Sophie stated, turning to look at the couple.

The man seemed surprised at her input. "Ye-yes, we know." he stuttered faintly.

"Did you try to jumpstart it?"

Uncle Rob was violently shaking his head behind the pair, making his second chin wobble. She ignored him.

The tourists both nodded at her question. Sophie smiled slightly, glad that they knew a bit about their vehicle when she then beckoned them over and made them look at the six different batteries. "Which one did you jumpstart?"

Fun fact: if it weren't for tourists, The Works would definitely not be as well off. Of course, they got locals that came in occasionally with broken farm tools and tractors, but Uncle Rob would always manage to gather a steady stream of customers who travel through the Burnett and the Leichhardt highway junction by convincing them that there was something seriously wrong with their vehicle.

Fortunately for this family, Sophie had stopped Uncle Rob before he scammed all the money out of their undoubtedly deep wallets. "You had the right idea," she told them, "But instead of jumpstarting the house batteries, the chassis batteries would have done the trick. I can do it now, if you want."

They agreed, and Sophie made sure the RV was off before fetching her jumper cables from The Works and beginning. The children had clambered out of the RV and settled down nearby to watch her. Sophie was slightly uncomfortable with this, but didn't say anything as she connected one end of the red (positive) jumper cable to the positive terminal on the stalled battery. She was glad that she had something to do, something to keep her from thinking about last night, which she couldn't think about. Not yet.

She shook her head to scatter the whisper of alien language, and was promptly startled by the two children whom had slowly crept closer while she was distracted. One girl and one boy. Sophie paused and studied them, realizing they were doing something similar. The little girl with her soft blonde hair and pink overalls looked at her shrewdly. "How _old_ are you?"

Sophie blinked at her. "Err-"

"Do you go to school?" The dark-haired boy interrupted, scrunching up his nose.

"Well-"

"We don't go to school, do we, Lucy?"

Lucy shook her head, making her two piggy tails bounce. "We're on holiday," She stated, then squinted at Sophie again, "Are _you_ on holiday?"

Sophie looked between them, still awkwardly holding the end of a cable and feeling a bit bewildered. "I-I am seventeen" she managed to choke out.

"And how do you know how to jumpstart a car?" Lucy asked, looking at her doubtfully.

"I thought only _criminals_ could do that," The boy said suspiciously and narrowing his eyes.

Sophie stared at them speechlessly. She was about to mention that this was different and that their own parents knew how to jumpstart the RV, but stopped when she spotted their mother hurrying over. "Oh- Lucas, Lucy! Leave the poor girl alone, please!" She said breathlessly, ushering away the children. "S-Sorry-um... Sparky?"

"Sophie," she corrected. The women must have been further conversing with Uncle Rob. Sophie connected the other positive cable clamp to the positive terminal on a good battery, which was in Rob's truck. When she walked back to get the negative cable, the women was still standing there, twisting her hands nervously as she kept a watchful eye on Uncle Rob and her husband, whom were talking. Sophie had the feeling that she should say something, therefore- "What is your name?"

The women looked back at her, and then smiled. Sophie realized that she was quite beautiful. "Marie Pennyfeather,"

Sophie nodded. "You... you are on holidays?"

Marie hesitated, but then nodded. "Yeah," she sighed, "We lost family just recently...so we thought we would just get away from it all for a while..."

Sophie glanced at her skeptically. "In _Banana_?"

Marie laughed slightly but she was still troubled, hand fidgeting with her flower patterned skirt. She kept peeking down at Sophie who was checking the cables. Sophie paused and evaluated Marie's demeanor, before twisting around to look at Uncle Rob and the rest. Then she sighed heavily and reluctantly stood, brushing the gravel off her work jumpsuit. "Hmm... so...what happened to the family you lost?" Sophie asked and winced immediately afterward. _Tactful Sophie_.

On the contrary, this seemed exactly what Marie was waiting for, as she blew out a gush of bottled breath and launched into her story. "It was my brother, you see, he was an a business inspector who was at the top of his game, enjoying life to the fullest," she tragically began, wide hazel eyes going misty. "Then his boss deported him overseas to California, you know, to Los Angeles. And once again, from the various letters and messages his sent us, we knew that he was having the time of his life..." she continued and started to sniff. Then her eyes squeezed shut and she pressed a hand to her delicate mouth as a pained expression passed over her face. "He-" (SNIFF) "-He told us just before the big attack that-"(SNIFF) "-that he-" (SNIFF) _"- shut-down-a-shoe-making-company-for-stamping-the-wrong-sizes-on-the-shoes-in-our-name!"_ Marie wailed and buried her face in her hands.

Sophie stood there rigidly, staring at her, trying to figure out if Marie was being serious as she cried hysterically. "Oh..." she said, and could hear Uncle Rob suppressing a snort in the background. Then she realized something. "Wait, what attack?"

Marie took a few deep breathes and peered at her suspiciously through her fingers. She strongly resembled her son. "What do you mean, _what attack_?"

"Um-"

"Don't you watch TV?"

"Well-"

"Or read the newspaper?"

"That-"

"Or listen to the radio?" Lucy piped in, fiddling with the old device.

Uncle Rob wasn't even trying to not laugh as he caught sight of Sophie's expression. She glared at him and clenched her hands; her head was starting to throb again. "So, the attack in Los Angeles...?" she prompted.

"Around Los Angeles," Marie corrected, all of her tears suddenly and inexplicably gone. "In Mission City. _Very _mysterious, apparently all of the videos on it had to be destroyed."

"When was this?"

"A few weeks ago," she answered dismissively, "The military was very vague; told the media that it was a terrorist attack to shut them up."

"But we know what _really_ happened," hinted Lucas, who was standing near his sister by the radio.

Sophie raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"_Aliens_," Marie, Lucy, and Lucas chorused, a dreamy look in their eyes. Their father twitched nervously by Uncle Rob, who was shaking and wheezing with silent laughter.

After that, Sophie got in their truck, jumpstarted the family's RV, charged them twenty bucks for the trouble, and sent them on their way, leaving her staring after them with a sour expression on her face.

Uncle Rob was standing next to her, still chortling. "Tha' was somethin', eh?"

Sophie nodded. "They might even be strange enough to live here."

"Don't say that! God knows we've got too many weirdoes,"

"Too true," she murmured, and then she turned on him, frowning disapprovingly. "You promised that you would do the talking with customers,"

He scrunched his face up. "Well, Miss Anti-Social, ya' should've let me handle the money-"

"-You called my motorbike a _'ruddy machine'_-"

"-Oo' puts food on tha' table, eh? I-"

"I do,"

This continued for quite some time.

* * *

It was late in the afternoon when Sophie's work was done and she finally had some time to spend on her bike. She couldn't avoid not thinking about it any longer, therefore she pulled out her sketches from the night before and consulted them.

Fortunately, she was still able to understand her notes, which consisted of the strange writing and complex diagrams. From these diagrams, she began to construct components of the bike which had been damaged or removed as she mused idly about the information she had received in the morning.

A terrorist attack. Los Angeles. Mission city near-destroyed according to the reports she had found throughout the day. Sophie wasn't at all surprised that she hadn't heard about it until now; Dululu was pretty well separated from the rest of the world. She had also managed to dig up some photos of the city's damage on the internet before Uncle Rob berated her for wasting time. The pictures were disturbing; great craters in the bitumen, shrapnel everywhere, corners of skyscrapers torn out. She understood why the Pennyfeathers were so skeptic, it seemed unbelievable that a group of people could put up such a fight. Nevertheless, Sophie had no doubt in humanity's ability to destroy, therefore she wouldn't jump to conclusions. _Aliens...what rubbish..._

Sophie then plugged a metallic part back into the bike's engine, and snatched her hand back with a yelp. A blue arc of electricity had zapped her hand with a sharp _crack_ just as she attached the component a little more roughly them she perhaps needed to.

She stared blankly at the faintly glowing engine for a long moment, considering. She then rapped her knuckles smartly against a panel. "Behave," she muttered, and continued to work, preferring not to think about what just happened as a headache behind her eyes slowly began to develop, making her pine for another aspirin.


	5. A Wild Ride

Chapter 5 A Wild Ride

It took three and half weeks in total before the motorbike was ready to roll.

Sophie, of course, could have made the vehicle road-worthy sooner if it weren't for her job at The Works and the distraction her other, failed inventions provided. Her head-aches also became annoyingly more frequent. However, this was of course manageable with doses of aspirin and panadol. Sophie had always been restless, but in those short few weeks, her dependence on drugs, such as the aspirin and sleeping pills, had steadily increased. Consequently, she had been seeing Angel more and more often.

Due to Dululu's remote location, Sophie and Uncle Rob weren't exactly bursting with business. However, Uncle Rob continually manages to keep her from having too much free time on her hands by ordering her to do odd jobs around the garage; cleaning, deliveries into Banana, tool maintenance etc. And given her unique situation, Sophie couldn't exactly refuse.

Also, ever since she began restoring the motorcycle, the back of her mind searched and found solutions for many of her unsuccessful creations. This often drew her attention away from the bike, as she was sure that if she ever sold one of her inventions, Sophie would never have to work for Uncle Rob again in her life.

The motorcycle, however, seemingly did not approve of the lack of fixing on its part. It regularly zapped her with electricity, and components of her inventions mysteriously, and frequently, went missing , only for Sophie to find them hours later lodged in the bike's interior. This presented possibilities that Sophie still did not want to consider, even though she knew it was childish to ignore the not-so-subtly evidence.

Anyway, to digress, she had been abruptly woken early Wednesday morning when something tough and leathery smacked her in the face.

Alarmed and momentarily blind, Sophie tried to jump out of bed, but was strangled by her bed sheets and promptly whacked her head on the edge of the small bedside-table. There was a burst of child-like laughter and Sophie groaned, stripping the leather jacket from her head and glaring at Angel reproachfully. "You do realize that there are other methods of waking people up," Sophie seethed slightly, rubbing her forehead. "You know, ones that _aren't _painful."

Angel was still laughing, clutching a stitch in her side as she wandered over to Sophie's undersized wardrobe. "I didn't forceyou to hit your head, did I?" She sniggered.

Sophie crawled sluggishly from her bed-sheets and stood up, her tiredness quickly smothering her anger. "Is there a way to insure you never do that again?" She asked Angel wearily, whom was now wearing a rather nasty scowl on her pixie face. She had opened the wardrobe.

"Honestly, Sophie, don't you own anything_ remotely_ feminine?" she said, looking at Sophie's dirty jeans, shorts, and white singlet's with disgust. "There's only, like, four things in here..."

"Four things are enough," Sophie curtly told her, grabbing some clothes and shooing Angel from her room.

A few moments later, Sophie entered the garage, zipping up the leather jacket over her singlet and wearing full-length jeans and work boots. It was the crack of dawn, which meant Uncle Rob would not be up yet, just as Sophie had predicted. She wrote him a quick note, (which he probably would read), downed two aspirins and snagged her worn black helmet as she strode over to her motorcycle.

In Sophie's opinion, it was looking pretty good; she had to construct an entirely new casing for the bike, but hadn't bothered to paint it. Therefore, the bike was now a mismatched grey and black color of the random sheets of alloy she scavenged from around The Works. Finding replacement tires was easy enough; Uncle Rob always has a few laying around.

In Angel's eyes, however, Sophie's bike obviously didn't meet her standards, judging by her scrutinizing look as Sophie rolled it out of the garage. "Sophie..." she started in her innocent voice, sitting on her cherry red Harley Davidson. "Your hunk-of-junk barely looks like it can get over 20, let alone keep up with my baby."

Sophie was vaguely offended. So was the bike, it seemed, as Sophie felt a slight, angry shudder through her grip on the handlebars.

Sophie smirked as she squeezed the helmet over her head and swung a leg over the bike to sit down. "Trust me, that won't be a problem." She assured, and then scrutinized Angel closely.

Angel frowned at her as she settled comfortably on her Harley. "What?"

Sophie gestured to Angel's bared, tattooed arms and colorful head. "Shouldn't you suit up?"

Angel barked a cute laugh and rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "I'm fine, Mum." she said impatiently and twisted the throttle, tearing out of the driveway with a loud rumble.

Sophie sighed, but was determined not to let Angel leave her in the dust as she rotated her own throttle and moved quickly unto the highway.

With no cars in sight, Sophie and Angel had the road to themselves. Any trace of weariness Sophie had was washed away as they rocketed down the highway, wind tearing at her leather and the straggly trees on either side of her becoming blurs in her peripherals. Behind her helmet, Sophie felt her lips curve into a smile as she fast approached Angel, engine roaring beneath her she put it through its paces.

Angel's face was a picture of surprise when she turned to see Sophie draw up beside her, multicolored hair whipping her around her head like a flame. Then she grinned hugely and pulled once more on the throttle, inching ahead. Sophie mimicked her in response, leaning forward so that the wind skimmed over her back as they shot down the road.

As they raced, the sun's glowing rays spilt over the horizon, illuminating the dusty land in a golden light and creating long shadows of the two exuberant riders. "_Whoooooooo_!" Angel yelled and Sophie laughed, feeling better then she had in ages.

About an hour later, they zoomed into the small town of Banana. Sophie watched the simple brick houses pass by with a comfortable sense of familiarity. It was as much a home to her as Dululu.

They slowed to a stop when they reached an intersection; light red. A group of teenage girls, about Sophie's age, giggled and ambled across the road wearing school uniforms, some of them shooting critical looks at Angel as they passed. Sophie smirked behind her helmet. "I don't think they like you Angel," she commented in a shocked tone.

Angel sneered right back. "Touché. Feeling a little..._jealous_, are we?"

Sophie snorted exaggeratedly as the light turned green and they were off once more.

Sophie didn't go to school. This would have been illegal if she wasn't working. Therefore, Sophie had made sure to obtain all the legal papers that would provide physical evidence that she was currently in an apprenticeship with Uncle Rob as her instructor. This was purely for pretence, as Sophie already knew anything Uncle Rob could ever tell her.

Sophie followed Angel as they whipped down the main street, presumably heading for the bakery in the IGA supermarket for breakfast. Angel would, of course, be buying since Sophie never had a cent on her. The only cash she owned was the measly savings that she kept locked up in her room where Uncle Rob couldn't get his greasy hands on it.

As they rode past the street corner, the TV store, _Bergmann: Best Brands on the Block_, flashed past them. Sophie glanced at the televisions in the windows, and was startled to catch a glimpse of a destroyed city. An unmistakable headline rolled across the footage just as her handlebars suddenly jammed to the right, straight at the store.

_The Secrets of Mission City._

Sophie's bike skidded dangerously with the sudden change of direction. She gritted her teeth and tried to pull the machine back on course but it was too late. She heard Angel's panicked yell as the motorcycle tipped on its side, slamming Sophie into the pavement and dragging her rapidly across the bitumen. The gravel tore at her jeans and slashed at her jacket and her helmeted head crunched against the road.

"WATCH OUT!" Angel screamed a bit uselessly, as all Sophie could do was go along for the ride. Though, pretty soon she saw what Angel was talking about.

Sophie caught a quick look at the massive semi-trailer before the she slid underneath it.

_ IGA, Save Everyday!_

She watched, feeling somewhat detached, as the bottom of the trailer moved above her. Her brain absorbed the minute details; the heavy chug of an engine changing gears, the crusty bits of dried mud stuck in the railings and the brief, but strong smell of petrol.

And then she was out the other side, the heavy back wheels screeching to a stop just where her head had been moments before.

Sophie didn't move, her hands still gripping the handle bar as she listened to her bike let out a very low whine of disappointment. For the first time, in a very long time, Sophie's mind was blank.

Then she heard wheels braking and Angel's frightened voice. "_Sophie!"_ she gasped, "Sophie! _Are you ok?_"

Angel's voice broke Sophie from her frozen state. She forced her hands to unclench from the handlebars and her elbows hit the pavement, where she attempted to drag herself from where the motorbike had pinned her right leg to the road. Angel must have realized what she was trying to do, because the bike's weight soon disappeared.

Sophie felt hands under her arms and she was hoisted to her feet. She looked around, dazed, and saw a rather skinny man with a black and red cap standing next to a hysterical Angel. She was distantly aware of the burning sensation that spread all down her right leg.

"SophieOhMyGoshYouCouldHaveDi edIWasSoWorriedIAmSoSorry-" Angel wailed, resembling Marie Pennyfeather for a moment as Sophie fumbled with her helmet and pulled it off.

Sophie took a deep, soothing breath to steady herself, and noticed that the skinny man was watching her, twisting his cap nervously in his hands. "Are you the truck driver?" she asked, feeling surprisingly calm as Angel cried in the background, clinging to her arm.

He nodded and gulped, his long brown beard that rivaled Uncle Rob's mustache twitching. "Are... Are you Ok?"

Sophie considered this. "I think I'm in shock," she decided, and then looked down at her burning right leg. The jeans had been ripped through to reveal several large, bright red blotches incrusted with dirt along her calf and thighs. Gravel rash. "but I should be fine." she added.

The Truckie looked visible relieved now that he wouldn't have to pay for anything. Angel, however, looked interested. "Gravel rash, huh?" she said, sniffing and wiping the tears from her cheeks. She proceeded to kneel down, study the injured area, and then poke it with a finger.

"HOLY F-" Sophie began to swear, but then faltered as she spotted a young girl watching her curiously from the sidewalk. "F-fudge." she finished weakly, and then swiped Angel's hand away and demanded, "Why would you do that?"

"This is gonna hurt like shit when you get back home," she commented helpfully.

"I know,"

"You'll have to wash it out,"

"I know,"

"Uncle Rob's gonna love this-,"

"I _know_,"

Angel observed the injury for a moment longer, dark bottom lip wobbling, before she buried her mascara stained face in her hands, sobbing loudly. Sophie sighed and the Truckie's beady black eyes flickered between them, bewildered. It appeared that Angel was far more shaken by the accident then Sophie was.

Sophie turned to the Truckie."What is your name?"

"Ah, Garry,"

"Alright, Garry. Do know where Dululu is?" she asked, staring at him steadily.

For a second he looked like he was about to say no. "Y-yes..." he answered reluctantly.

"Fantastic. I'm going to need you to follow us back there with the bike," she told him and jabbed a thumb at the motorcycle.

"B-but it looks fine!" he complained in a reedy voice, "And I have a load that I really need to deliver..." he continued, gesturing to his trailer. Sophie knew for a fact that her bike wasn't going anywhere, so she just kept staring at him until he started to squirm. He soon gave in, sighing pathetically. "...fine."

* * *

Angel had been right.

When Sophie arrived back at The Works in the early afternoon on the back of Angel's Harley Davidson, being shadowed by a massive IGA semi-trailer, Uncle Rob just about broke into tears.

"AHAAAAAAAAAAAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA HA-" he roared when he caught sight of Sophie's leg, which now felt as though it was on fire. "HAHAAHAHAHAHA-"

Sophie scowled and sent him the coldest look she could muster before limping to the back of Garry's trailer with as much dignity as she could. Angel stayed long enough to help her roll the motorcycle from the trailer and into the garage, passing her a bottle of sleeping pills as they went, before speeding off down the highway once more. Sophie had hoped her accident might have convinced Angel to finally wear some safety gear, but alas it was not to be.

Garry, however, stayed much longer. "Garry Hoss Crow!" Uncle Rob boomed, clapping the man's thin shoulder in greeting, practically knocking him over. "Fancy seein' ya here!"

This signalled the beginning of a tragic event which mainly involved TV, numerous cans of beer, and raucous laughter. Sophie tried to ignore this as she cleaned the muck and dirt from her wound with a bottle of water and towel, sitting precariously on the bench by the first aid cabinet, gritting her teeth.

"-head nearly burst like a melon, it did!" Sophie heard Garry describe enthusiastically to a sniggering Rob before she closed her bedroom door, muffling the noise.

Sophie stood there, one hand still on the door and the other pressed against her eyes, for quite a while. She was sore all over and her leg was stinging beneath the gauze, but she was not tired. In fact, her brain was racing as if she's had twenty cups of coffee, black writing scribbling across her eyes even though they were closed. It ached. She considered the sleeping pills in her hand, but tossed them unto her bedside table instead.

Proper scientists don't ignore evidence that contradicts his or her theories. They try to discover how and _why _these anomalies are reoccurring.

Sophie had ignored this for too long.

* * *

Author's note:

_As you can probably figure out, Sophie will finally meet her alien in the next chapter._

_I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! :)_


	6. Arcee

Chapter 6 Arcee

* * *

Author's note:

_Anyone who can guess where the song is from will be awarded 50 internet points lol._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

_Into each life some rain must fall_

_But too much is falling in mine._

Uncle Rob hummed softly along with the pleasant tune, happily nursing a luke-warm beer as the radio played quietly. Garry had left an hour ago when he spotted the threatening black clouds hovering on the horizon, afraid of getting caught in the storm. He'd never be as brave as Rob was, obviously.

It had been a good day. No Sparky around to steal his customers, a surprise visit from an old friend, and, of course, Sparky stacking it hilariously on an empty road. Trust her to nearly get run over by the only car around! Uncle Rob chuckled at the treasured memory and took a swig of his beer, hiccupping and listening to the rain drumming on the tin roof.

_Into each heart some tears must fall,_

_But some day the sun will shine._

The lyrics stuttered momentarily as a rumble of thunder echoed in the distance. Uncle Rob spared a glance at Sparky's closed door; she hadn't stirred ever since she ran from the party.

Curious, and a little restless about being left alone with the bike, Uncle Rob levered himself off the couch and shuffled to Sparky's room. Even in his drunken state, Rob knew to knock before charging in, remembering the painful consequences Sparky dished out for his actions. Therefore, he waited politely at the door to be let in.

When she didn't answer, Uncle Rob knocked again, louder. "Sparky!" -hic- "Le' me in!"

Nothing.

_Some folks can lose_

_The blues in their hearts,_

"Hmph!" huffed Rob, hitching up his pants and wandering over to his tool box. He had never been one to give up.

With hammer in hand, he stood by Sparky's door impressively, a boom of thunder adding to the effect nicely, he thought. He brought his arm up over his shoulder, gripping the hammer's handle tightly, and held the awesome pose for a moment, almost wishing Garry was still around so that he could take a picture.

Then he hefted his powerful shoulders and swung the hammer at the door with all his might, just as it opened to reveal a disgruntled Sparky standing right behind it.

For a split-second, Uncle Rob honestly believed that he was about to smash her head in, but Sparky's hand shot up faster than anything to catch the face of the hammer with a _thud_, inches from her forehead. Sparky's bright blue eyes bore into his accusingly before she shoved past him.

As her door swung shut, Rob caught a swift glimpse of her small room; her old laptop was out and sheets of paper filled with unfamiliar text were scattered all over the room. There was writing on the walls, some parts English and other parts not, haphazardly drawn with a blunt piece of white chalk. The door snapped shut.

_But when I think of you,_

_Another shower starts._

"Spaaarky?"

"Sophie," she corrected as she normally did, and Uncle Rob turned around to see her hopping into her work boots and shrugging her leather jacket on.

"What are ya doin'?" he probed as he waddled back over to his couch.

Sparky's voice came out tense even though she tried to tease lightly, "What, no apology for nearly busting my head open?" She unscrewed the bottle in her hands and shook out two sleeping pills, swallowing them both without water. To Uncle Rob's slight alarm, she then grabbed her helmet. "I should be back later."

"You're not goin' out ridin' in this weather?" He said in disbelief from his position on the couch, "And after ya just took two of those guddam things!"

Sparky ignored him as she threw the roller doors open, the sound of the rain dramatically increasing as the darkened landscape was revealed. She then strode over to the motorbike in the centre of the garage, covering her wild hair with the black helmet and swinging a leg over the bike.

"I should be back later," she repeated, her voice muffled by the helmet. She kicked up the stand and twisted the throttle.

"Close tha door, alright!?" he yelled over the noise but Sparky was gone; instantly disappearing into the dark.

Uncle sighed.

_Into each life some rain must fall,_

_But too much is falling in mine._

"Tell me abou' it..."

* * *

Sophie whacked the front of the bike so that the headlights flickered back on, illuminating the moving road ahead of her. It didn't matter much, really, considering how much her vision was impaired at the moment with the rain and the black writing filing down her sight. At least it wasn't windy, but that didn't seem to matter much either, as she drove speedily through the stinging pellets.

The air whipped her drenched cloths against her hot skin as she travelled quickly down the highway, pressing the sodden bandages to her burns. She wasn't cold, but fevers were misleading; she could feel how her stiff her fingers were around the throttle. She clenched her knees tighter around the seat to insure she didn't fall off.

Fortunately, the motorcycle didn't need much help staying on the road. Of course it didn't. The bike did, however, wobble occasionally and lost consistency with its acceleration frequently, engine sputtering as it sped down the highway. This was to be expected though, bearing in mind the excitement it went through today.

Sophie scowled as her head pounded; her mind racing violently. It was impossible to still her thoughts, any thoughts at all; when she certain that her brain had reached its capacity, there was just more and _more_. Everything was so alien yet terribly familiar, like it had been born into her or made a part of her somehow. Intense, painful, brilliant. The sleeping pills did nothing. Equations, theories, species, worlds, codes, numbers...

Even with her mind as disordered as it was, Sophie managed to notice the appropriate turn off when she reached it. The rear tire sprayed water as she leaned carefully around the corner and trees rose up higher on both sides of the road, blocking her from view of anyone passing through the Leichhardt highway.

Sophie drove through the turn off for several minutes. The road beneath her was cracked like a spider's web and pocket marked with potholes, making the bike jolt when she couldn't swerve to avoid them and collecting the rain as it fell down in cold, straight sheets. It was even darker there; tall trees looming and black clouds brewing above. Still not a hint of wind.

Without warning, she squeezed the brakes and they rumbled to a halt in the centre of the unmarked road; the engine choking and spluttering unhealthily before finally cutting out. Sophie kicked down the stand and slid off the seat, work boots narrowly missing a pothole. She pulled her helmet off, (hair being saturated immediately), balanced it carefully on the seat, and walked off.

She headed in the direction of the Leichhardt highway, hands shoved deep in the pockets of her leather jacket and her back hunched against the rain. The water was actually pleasant as it ran down her face in droplets, cooling her off as the distance grew between her and the stationary vehicle. Slowly, her mind began relax and she felt the cords of her upper shoulders unwind as she walked on and on. Waiting.

And then she heard it; the stuttering start of an engine.

It was faint, due to the rain and the distance, but it was there. Sophie kept walking. And after a moment, she heard the slight crackle of wheels rolling over bits gravel on an uneven road. As the sound grew louder, Sophie stopped and slowly turned around.

The motorcycle was, of course, sitting a few paces behind her, far closer then it should've been considering the amount of time Sophie had been walking. Her helmet was still on the seat and the headlights were off. Even the stand had been put down so that it could lean against the road exactly how she had left it.

Sophie studied it, her face blank, before turning around and continuing down the road. She was frowning slightly, listening and thinking and barely seeing what was in front of her as her boots squelched uncomfortably around her feet. When she reached a considerate distance there was the engine again, chugging and faltering back to life, followed by the sound of wheels rolling across the rough bitumen.

Sophie kept walking this time, frown deepening and her teeth chewing on her bottom lip as she listened to it following her. Suddenly, and as swiftly as she could, Sophie whipped around, but she knew immediately that it wasn't fast enough as she heard the engine instantly die and stand snap out before she could complete the turn.

Disappointed, Sophie squinted at it, blinking through the rain. A completely ordinary motorcycle. Despite herself, she felt her mouth twitched up at the sides. _Ordinary my ass._

She then sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. "Okay," she breathed, and then spoke louder, "I know what you are. No point in hiding."

Sophie looked at it expectantly for a few moments, the rain drenching her to the core. Nothing. Her eyes narrowed, and she stood up straight, hands clasped behind her back as she repeated loudly and clearly, "_I know what you are_,"

Except those weren't the words that left her mouth, not at all. Instead, a rasping hiss escaped her throat and her tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth, followed by an odd, straining sound in the back of her throat. It felt like she was choking.

There was a pause. Then there was a long, unearthly groan and the motorcycle shuddered violently, making the casing rattle and crack before the vehicle exploded at the seams.

Sophie watched, eyes wide, as the insides of her bike spewed forth and began rearranging themselves in an awkward, almost painful fashion. The pandemonium moved higher and began to form recognizable body parts from the disarray, all the while that eerie, drawn out cry made the ground quiver beneath her boots and her guts quake like she was standing next to a very powerful amp. Sophie winced and gritted her chattering teeth and her head suddenly felt like it was being cleaved open. The process certainly wasn't graceful; at one point there was a loud _pop_ and jolt and there was a sudden eruption of sparks from its side before a malformed hand pressed against the area with a long-bearing sigh.

But eventually, as the last components rigged into place, Sophie had absorbed that a robot was now left standing in place of her motorcycle. A very worn looking robot.

They gazed at each other; two electrified, blue eyes boring into a pair of normal ones, the light from them illuminating Sophie and the road before it. Everything was silent except for the patter of rain and the creaking of the alien's joints.

Sophie very quickly determined that_ It_ was a _she_, even though her sleek shape had been bulked up somewhat with Sophie's additions of metal alloy, which were now fitted to the alien's rather skinny frame like grey and black armor. The planes of her face were sharp and angular, and she absolutely towered over Sophie, nearly 10 feet tall at least. Two arms and two thin legs, each of which was ended with a tire on the sole of the three-digit feet. She was rather scuffed up; numerous scratches and dents decorating her decor, giving off a tattered impression. It didn't help that the rain was now leaving trails of mud where the dust had been collected on the interior of the bike.

Sophie felt the shock on her face and swiftly wiped it away, realizing that the alien had been watching Sophie watching her.

After another long moment of consideration, Sophie slowly raised a hand and waved. The robot mimicked her, lifting a hand with three digits and moving it side to side.

Sophie bit her tongue, hard, and found that she had to turn away for moment, feeling a bit shell-shocked. She knew, Sophie _knew _what was going to happen, but suddenly _knowing_ seemed very different from seeing and believing. It was so surreal, she actually felt a bit stunned. She took several slow, deep breathes, concentrating on the cool water running down her face before turning back to the alien, whom was currently shifting its feet clumsily as if it didn't know how to use them. _She_, not _it_.

Her mind was bursting with questions, but all that came out was a strangled,

"Hi,"

She felt like slapping herself. If questions were people they would be looking at her in disbelief. At least it got the alien's attention; her vivid, burning blue eyes moving from her newly-acquired feet to stare at Sophie somewhat reproachfully. The grey plate that covered the bottom half of her face then cracked in two and receded to the sides of her sharp face, protruding away from her head like blown back pieces of hair. This revealed a rather jagged mouth, which seemed to had been carved roughly through an intact sheet of metal. Instead of words, the alien spoke in a series of whirs, hums and clicks.

Sophie flinched; a flash of intense pain followed by a loud ringing in her ears. she resisted the urge to step back and clutch her head in her hands as she tried to decipher what the alien was saying through the fading noise.

She was muttering to herself. "_-fragging ridiculous -_pshhra_- never doing -_stittalocshhhhhz_- busting my afterburner just trying to trans -_psffftich_- can't even understand me after all, useless creature..._,"

As she listened, Sophie felt her own demeanor change; eyes narrowing, lips pursing, arms crossing, and skeptical frown forming. The robot hardly noticed as the rant continued, using an assortment of colorful curses aimed at Earth in general. The message became crisper and clearer as the ringing in her ears faded. Sophie cleared her throat, parted her lips, and let loose a loud hum that resonated in her chest as she shifted the volume. "_What is your name?"_

That cut her short, the alien's large head snapping around so fast it must have put a crick in her neck, because a hand came up to rub it, wincing. "_Wha_ -shh- _did you just say_?"

"_What is your name?"_

The alien equivalent of the English word _name_ didn't fit quite well, more or less translating in _designation_. The robot gawked, and Sophie could just see the tiny spokes in her eyes rotating as they focused in on her. And then,

"_Arcee_,"


	7. The Deal

Chapter 7 The Deal

* * *

Author's note:

_Short chapter today, guys. I promise that the next one will be longer! :)_

* * *

(Previous)

_Sophie cleared her throat, parted her lips, and let loose a loud hum that resonated in her chest as she shifted the volume. "What is your name?"_

_That cut her short, the alien's large head snapping around so fast it must have put a crick in her neck, because a hand came up to rub it, wincing. "Wha -shh- did you just say?"_

_"What is your name?"_

_The alien equivalent of the English word name didn't fit quite well, more or less translating in designation. The robot gawked, and Sophie could just see the tiny spokes in her eyes rotating as they focused in on her. And then, _

_"Arcee," _

* * *

Sophie once again appreciated the large trees on either side of the road as they blocked the view of anyone passing through the Leichhardt highway, because if anyone saw the 10 feet robot with eyes like blue fire illuminating a drenched teenage girl standing in the middle of the road, she thought that they might crash.

Sophie swallowed and nodded, keeping her face absolutely blank while her thoughts raged inside. "_I am_ Sophie," pronouncing her name in English, wisely choosing to ignore the alien's previous speech and remembering to breathe. She forced her mind to concentrate on the situation at hand instead of wandering off and getting distracted. And be polite, be polite, be polite...

Arcee started to talk again and Sophie refocused, listening closely and watching the alien's chunky black and grey armor glisten in the rain and run slick with mud. "_So you can understand Cybertronian_,"

"_Obviously_,"

"_How?_" demanded Arcee and she tried to take a threatening step forward, but had to throw her metallic arms out to balance when she nearly toppled. Sophie took a discreet step backwards, not liking the idea of being flattened.

"_I'm not sure_," Sophie answered truthfully, her teeth chattering together sorely to form the strange speech. "_Just like I'm not sure about how you ended up a piece of scrap in _Banana's_ dump..._," There was no word for Banana, so she said it in English.

The alien's eyes narrowed and she seemed to glare at Sophie, form going rigid. Sophie realized that she may have just offended her in some way. Damn. "_Is that right?_" she clicked stiffly, and her volume grew louder as she continued, "_Guess what I'm not sure about. EVERYTHING! It all started with that stupid beacon, calling all remaining Autobots to earth my tailpipe... probably some nasty Decepticon Tri_-" She made a sound that was beyond what Sophie's human ears could register, but she got the gist of it.

Sophie closed her eyes for a moment, thinking hard and working past the small, rational part of her brain telling her to run. _"These Autobots are your friends?"_ She asked when Arcee had finished, her eyes still shut.

She made a positive whirring noise. _"Yes,"_

Sophie opened her eyes. "_I can help you find them_,"

Arcee made a low, amused sound. But it was humorless, like a scoff. _"Weren't you listening, human? There are no Autobots on this slagging planet; the beacon is a Decepticon trap to lure us here."_

_"But you don't really believe that do you?"_

"_Just get to the point, human, it's been a long cycle_,"

Sophie raised her eyebrows. "_It has, hasn't it_?" she said. Her jaw was starting to ache. "_Especially when you reacted so violently today at the words_ 'Mission City',"

Arcee was readjusting her balance, but paused as Sophie spoke. She regarded her more carefully. "_...pretty sharp for a human._" she commented grudgingly, and Sophie suppressed a satisfied smile. She then frowned slightly.

"_What I don't understand is how you knew the significance of those words when you clearly can't understand_ English."

Arcee hesitated, shifting a loose piece of black alloy back onto her shoulder. After a moments silence, she elaborated. "_When I landed, I connected to your_...internet," she said, moving her torn mouth around the English word as if she tasted something sour. "_I had time to try and search for the Autobot's location before I was...attacked_."

"_By the Decepticons?_"

She nodded, obviously not wanting to share details.

"_You of course couldn't find anything about your friends..._" Sophie murmured to herself, and then hummed louder, "_Except the news about _Mission City_ being mysteriously destroyed._ _I suppose you found out about all the alien rumors, huh_?"

Another nod.

"_So you must have understood English before you were attacked._" said Sophie and her frowned deepened. "_But then what happened?_"

"_I was attacked-_"

"_Yes, I know_," she interrupted impatiently, then quickly changed her tune as Arcee rumbled warningly. She had to remember what she was talking too. "_but how come you couldn't understand English after I fixed you?_"

The alien shifted uncomfortably on the spot. "_Data lost_," she answered curtly.

"_You can't remember_?"

It was the wrong thing to say, she knew, as Arcee bristled instantly, back plates rising and flexing."_You try going offline then! See how much you can remember! Want me to help?"_

"_Don't threaten me_," said Sophie, feeling annoyed. Her throat was really starting to hurt and her head-ache was coming back with a vengeance. "_And you weren't dead. I just woke you up. Sort of_."

She was about to continue when her throat hitched around a Cybertronian word and she gagged. This caused her to double-over and her hand shot to cover her mouth as a series of painful, hacking coughs racked her body, making her stumble away from the alien. In the background she heard a clunk, followed by a loud crunching noise and a Cybertronian curse. When she pulled her hand away, it came away red.

"_Are you damaged?_" she heard the alien ask, and Sophie turned back around to face her, and suddenly laughed.

Arcee had apparently tried to take a step towards her, but had lost her balance on her unstable legs, causing her to crash clumsily into the bitumen. "_Are _you_ damaged_?" Sophie rasped, wiping her hand on her damp jeans and trying not to snigger.

Arcee shot her a deadly look and let out a loud, frustrated vent of air as she maneuvered herself back onto her faulty legs. She adopted an expression of intense concentration, and a minute later her feet suddenly snapped together, causing Sophie to jump. Arcee's three 'toes' folded up and her legs melded together so that she now balanced on a single, large wheel made up of the two tires. Her torso also adjusted itself, somewhat stiffly, so that the a bulk of the motorcycle's casing was attached to her left shoulder like a large spaulder (shoulder plate armor). She glared at Sophie, as if daring her to say anything. Sophie supposed that she looked a bit like a motor-mermaid.

_"You balance better on one leg?"_ she asked skeptically and Arcee told her to shut up, rolling around experimentally. Sophie sighed, running a hand through her dripping hair and trying not to think about the blood on her hand before noticing that the rain had lightened considerably. It felt inappropriate thinking about the weather with everything that had just happened.

She heard the gravel crunching behind her and she turned to see Arcee moving towards her. She crouched down, oddly graceful on her single appendage , and leaned her hands against the road on either side of Sophie so that she could be as eye-level as she could get. Her blazing eyes were blinding in the dark and Sophie suppressed the urge to lean away as her head throbbed.

"_You said before that you could...help find the other Autobots_," said Arcee seriously, trapping Sophie with her burning gaze. She was so close that Sophie could define the rotating spokes in her eyes. _"If you do, what do you want in return?"_

Cute. An alien with a sense of honor. Nevertheless, Sophie stared at Arcee just as gravely, and told her clearly with her damaged, bleeding throat: _"You take me with you when you go."_

* * *

Arcee didn't ask her why, and for that Sophie was thankful. Whether this was because she respected Sophie's privacy or that she simply didn't care was unimportant.

After striking a bargain, Arcee transformed, slowly, back into Sophie's old motorcycle, the casing albeit more cracked from where Arcee was forced to rip through. Sophie had to admit that driving the bike seemed a little unnerving now, but she pushed the useless feeling away as they silently made their way back to The Works. They discovered Uncle Rob on the couch, snoring gigantically and holding his beer bottle loosely in his grubby hands. Sophie picked the bottle from him and took a swig after rolling Arcee into the garage.

At that very moment, Arcee had asked her for a very unusual favor. Having found no objection to the request, Sophie found herself welding a newly-crafted symbol onto the bike's front an hour later. It was a strange symbol of geometric shape; all straight lines and corners that slotted together to form a rather sad face. It even looked as though tears ran down from its hard eyes, but Sophie didn't say anything, doubting that the alien knew what tears were.

With her task finished, Sophie crouched by the front of the bike, admiring her work and running her hand over the shiny new symbol. She frowned. "You know," she murmured in English, "This makes the rest of you look rubbish..."

No answer, and Sophie reasoned the alien must be asleep. Her hand lingered over the symbol and she squinted at it through her fingers, then glanced over at Uncle Rob, wondering greatly.

With a heavy sigh, she stood and scavenged a blanket from her room before draping it over Rob's bulging figure. She then placed the nasty beer on the workbench and flicked on a single lamp in the darkness, aiming it at the bench. She fished out a heavy chunk of machinery and a screwdriver, beginning to work on an invention as her mind explored the possibilities the day had presented her with, planning, evaluating and solving, the only soul at The Works still awake as the hours dragged by.


	8. Preparation

Chapter 8 Preparation

"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamm nn..."

"What?" snapped Sophie, once again wearing her grey shirt and cargo shorts and looking irritated.

"Girl..." Angel drawled, scrutinizing her friend's appearance closely as she entered the garage. The gauze around Sophie's right leg was still there. "You look crazy."

"I know, righ'?" Uncle Rob called from outside and laughed.

Sophie scowled at them and swiveled on her stool to face her instead of the workbench. For as long as Angel had known her, Sophie had always had wild and untamable straw hair which forever seemed to be a direct contrast to her stern personality, and yet three days after Angel had last seen her, Sophie's hair had become something more comparable to a destroyed bird nest or a tangled chaos of course hay.

"Uncle Rob's been running me ragged around here." Sophie told her, sweeping a hand through her mane of hair. "I swear he has a continuous line of customers to bombard me with whenever I have any time to spare."

"Hell yeah, I do!" yelled Rob, "I keep 'em locked up in tha' dunny!"

Angel pursed her lips in an effort to mimic Sophie' expression, but failed. Her lips were far too full and beautiful to maintain such a shape. "Sophie, have you been sleeping?" Angel asked, leaning forward to peer at the lines around Sophie's bright eyes. "And are you sick? Your voice is all raspy and stuff."

Sophie brushed her away and turned back to her machine-thing on the bench, ignoring her. Angel frowned, thinking, and then suddenly brightened and clicked her fingers. "I know _exactly_ what you need -"

"No." Sophie interrupted.

"But it won't be like last time, I promise -"

"No."

"We'll try something different, come oooon -"

"_No_, Angel." repeated Sophie, not even pausing in her work as she continued to speak. "And your consistent nagging will not persuade me otherwise."

Angel pouted; something that her lips were made for. If there was one thing that irked Angel about Sophie, was how weak she was when it came to drugs. Sure, Angel kept her up-to-date with a steady stream of sleeping pills and aspirin, but that was _medicine_ for god-sake. What Sophie needed was a good hit of heroin or even ecstasy, not _sleeping pills_. Angel had even convinced her once to try something stronger, which may or may not have been a mistake. Angel wouldn't forget it and she was sure Sophie wouldn't either.

Angel refocused her attention and stared dully at what Sophie was working on. Then her face re-animated with interest and she swore in awe when she really _looked_ at the machine. "It looks like a giant gun!" she exclaimed, grabbing a hold and tried to lift it. Her voice strained as she heaved. "Just...like...in...the...alien...movies..."

Sophie swatted away Angel's delicate hands and the weapon settled back on the bench with a heavy _thunk_. She rolled her eyes. "That is exactly what Uncle Rob said. And no, it is not a gun."

"You sure?" Angel breathed, crouching to look at the sucker straight on, right down the silver ringed barrel. "Awesome..."

In the corner of her eye, she saw Sophie's gaze flicker to the crappy motorbike in the bay, the one that crashed. Though, it was so quick and slight she couldn't be sure it happened. "I'm sure."

At that moment, Uncle Rob emerged from the great outdoors and shuffled past them, leaving a long trail of muddy footprints on the concrete floor. Sophie sighed and stared hopelessly at them while Rob packed his things into the toolbox. "I'm goin' out for awhile, kids." said Rob, "Broken down prius on tha' 'ighway,"

Sophie's face brightened. "How long do you think you will be?"

"Tha' rest of tha' day, I think. Should be back when it's time for tucker..." he answered, and then his eyes narrowed suspiciously and he swiveled to face her. "Why?... Ya' not gonna go out, are ya'?"

Angel sniggered and raised a doubtful eyebrow at Sophie's excuse for a bike. It was definitely not going anywhere. Interestingly, Sophie had apparently attached a long, black wire running from the guts of her laptop to the depths of the bike.

"No," said Sophie, throwing an annoyed glance at Angel before looking back at Rob. "But why would you be worried? It's not like you."

Uncle rob nodded, stroking his kickass mustache. "True... _However_, strange things 'ave been 'appening at late and I would hate to have pay for funeral costs."

"You could always dump the body," Angel pointed out.

"Also true."

Sophie cut in, steering the conversation back into the realms of relevance. "What strange things?" she asked, sounding exasperated.

Rob shrugged, picking up his toolbox and Angel heard the rattle of the objects inside. "Craters, folks goin' missing, that sort of thing,"

"Craters," Angel breathed, looking at Sophie excitedly, whom was frowning.

Uncle Rob continued as he started to waddle out the door, doubling back on his wet footprints and causing Sophie to sigh once more, frustrated. "You kids 'ave fun!" he called, and stopped at the entrance of The Works to peer at Sophie. "And Sparky-"

"-Sophie-"

"-try not ta' burn tha' house down, alright?" he finished and Sophie snorted.

He disappeared and shortly afterwards they heard the rumble of his truck pull out of the drive. Angel turned to Sophie, whom was staring at her with her forceful blue eyes. "Well... I better be going too," Angel said after a moment, hooking a thumb in the loop of her leather pants.

Sophie raised her eyebrows. "You just got here,"

"Yeah, but you're in your 'work mode', I can tell. " she said as she sauntered to the door, speaking over her shoulder and fluffy hair brushing her cheek. "Call me when you're ready to have some _real_ fun."

Just as she was about to cross the threshold, Sophie called out her name and Angel turned back. Sophie's expression was odd; flicking through emotions so quick that Angel couldn't catch them until she settled on her usual serious appearance. Angel was surprised; one of those rare times where her friend had shown her what was behind the mask.

"Angel, you..." she said, and then hesitated. Angel could almost sense the struggle in her eyes. After the brief, pregnant pause, Sophie finally sighed. "You are a really cool friend. Thank you."

Angle blinked, feeling surprised and a little bewildered once again. Where did that come from? A compliment? Sophie doesn't hand out many of those. "Err, sure," she said, hovering by the door and the strangest feeling washed over her. It felt like she was saying goodbye.

Shaking off the uneasy feeling, Angel dipped her head to Sophie before walking to her red Harley Davidson, the grey sky embracing her and leaving her younger, yet far more mature friend studying the filthy, wet concrete floor with a pained expression.

* * *

Sophie listened to Angel's bike pull out of the driveway and tear down the highway, the thunder of the engine emitting echoes that still reached her at The Works. She waited in silence until the noise disappeared before slowly turning to her own motorcycle. She regarded it with utter surprise.

Gone was the scratched, dented, black and grey mismatched bike that had sat in her garage mere moments before. Instead, a new motorcycle leaned gracefully on its stand, almost unrecognizable and positively gleaming with a bright, glossy sheen over a rich, cherry red decor.

She blinked and opened her mouth to comment, but promptly shut it again. The only way Sophie knew it as Arcee was from the bike's structure, which hadn't changed. She certainly suited her shiny, alien symbol now.

"You look good," Sophie had to admit eventually, rubbing her forehead to try to relieve the tightness of the migraine. "But how did you..." She realized, "Oh. Angel's Harley Davidson."

Arcee gave a muted grunt of confirmation, muffled through the tiny speaker for the radio. "We're called Transformers for reason, you know."

"I thought the black and grey looked pretty good, actually."

Arcee let out a low hum of disapproval. "I looked like Ironhide..." she mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Sophie smiled slightly, regarding the disguised alien's casual use of English approvingly. "It seems that you've gotten the knack for English pretty quickly." she commented and she slid off her stool, wandering over to where the black wire connected the alien to her laptop. "I'm glad; I was getting sick of choking every time I had to talk to you. I take it you've finished connecting to the internet?"

Another distorted sound of confirmation and Sophie ejected the wire from her laptop before asking Arcee to transform. "Slowly, and carefully," she cautioned and she tucked the laptop away into one of the many drawers of her work-bench. She heard a loud whirring and the clanks of mechanisms reorganized themselves with strain behind her. That eerie, drawn out cry was still there, making the pain in her mind rise like a wave, yet not as harsh nor as punctured as the one three days ago. "Don't want you busting your head through the roof; I would never be able to explain it to Uncle Rob..."

She turned back in time to see Arcee hunching awkwardly and bending her single, wheeled leg to take in account her tallness and the height of the building. Thankfully, The Works had a fairly high ceiling, and alien didn't have to strain. With her burnished, scarlet armor and dark grey undertone, Arcee now looked very impressive in the dingy surrounding's of the garage.

"Do you know where they are yet?" said Arcee, straight to the point and Sophie didn't need to ask to know who she meant as she yanked the other end of the dark wire from the back of Arcee's neck. The alien's voice was crisp and feminine now that it emanated directly from her mouth instead of her motorcycle form's radio. It cut through the air and was slightly deeper than the average woman's voice, but Sophie thought that it fitted well with her hard ass attitude.

"Not exactly," said Sophie and returned Arcee's glare as she continued. "Ever heard of Sector Seven?"

"No,"

"Me neither." admitted Sophie, " That is, not until a few days ago. It's a secret American government agency, which deals with extraterrestrial technology and threats. Or _did_."

"If it was secret, how did you find out?" Arcee asked pointedly and Sophie sighed.

"Because I am very smart, Arcee, and hacking into top-secret government files is not beyond my abilities. Now lower your right arm."

"Why?" said Arcee, narrowing her eyes suspiciously , but moving her arm down to Sophie's level as she fetched a series of large clamps, gardening sheers, gloves and three long wires from Rob's storeroom. "And this 'sector seven'. This is where the Autobots are being kept?"

"No," called Sophie from the storeroom, ignoring the first question. "It was disbanded shortly after the attack on Mission City, as they proved to be quite useless in the larger scheme of things." She huffed as she dumped the sheers on the workbench and hauled the clamps over to Arcee's lowered arm. "You recognized the words 'Mission City' on the TV and from when Marie Pennyfeather came over, didn't you?"

Arcee's brow-plates declined as she frowned at Sophie's abrupt question. She jerked her head in confirmation before biting back impatiently with one of her own. "Where are they, _human_?" she slowly ground out, voice cutting and calling Sophie human as if it were an insult. Sophie had the feeling that Arcee was trying very hard to intimidate her.

Sophie clamped a component of the alien's forearm and secured it as tightly as she could. "Don't get bitchy with me, _alien_. Without me you would be dead right now." Sophie snapped back and picked up another clamp before continuing. "And to answer your question, I have a suspicion that a few of your buddies might be located in Diego Garcia; a very large island in the British Indian Ocean Territory which is conveniently home to a military base."

"Why would they be there?" she insisted, watching Sophie warily as the human attached two more black wires into the panel of her forearm, leaving the third to be held in her own gloved hand.

Sophie smirked and flicked on the power for the wires, air crackling with electricity. "You'll get a kick out of this. A combined defense force of both Humans and Transformers was created after Sector Seven was disbanded. The _Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty_, or NEST for short. Diego Garcia is their training centre. No doubt your friends will be there."

Arcee had looked somewhat troubled by the idea of Humans and Transformers working together, but apparently let it go for more information. "But how do I get there-AHHHHH!"

There was a loud tearing noise as Sophie wrenched the two clamps in opposite directions, forcing the component in the alien's forearm jerk and rip. Sparks flew as the wires surged with electricity and the power flowed into the robotic arm, making it twitch and jump as the energy crackled within it. The air smelled pungently of ozone as Sophie stood back when Arcee tried to yank her arm away and pull out the wires, but the arm was deadened and it flopped uselessly. Once again, the appendage seemed to breath, stretching and expanding, and allowing Sophie to see all of the exterior and interior workings of the mechanism. After seeing this, Sophie immediately moved closer despite her own nauseating pain and began to touch the end of her own wire to certain modules, causing the sections she touched to rearrange themselves in the manner she wanted while Arcee stared, looking horrified and apparently lost for words.

After several long minutes filled with the zaps of electricity and an alien's shocked silence, Sophie was satisfied. Flicking the wire's power switches off, she removed them from the jumbled mess that was Arcee's arm. Leaving the wires on the ground, Sophie glanced up at Arcee's face as she stumbled over to the workbench, desperately pining for aspirin but knowing she had too many already.

"Sorry about that," she decided to say before the alien could shake from her stupor and try to pummel her to death. "It was necessary."

Arcee slowly swivelled her head around to stare at Sophie reproachfully, and she felt a twinge of guilt. "I...er, really sorry," she continued lamely, then gestured to the machine she had been working with on the bench. "But you'll love this, I promise. It's a gun. A little something I have been working on for a while now."

Arcee moved her gaze to the weapon, staring at it blankly for a moment before suddenly frowning and rolling closer. She cradled her useless right arm against her plated chest. "Wait, what did you say?"

"It is a gun," repeated Sophie, and she let her voice be colored with pride towards one of her first successful inventions. She always had the knowledge; all that she ever needed was the understanding brought through the study of Arcee's biology. "A directed-energy weapon, to be precise. Though, it fires nothing special, using condensed electricity for ammunition... "

Arcee gazed at the silver-ringed barrel shaped like a large exhaust and the hulking, supporting grey body before looking down at Sophie, her burning eyes dim. "How did you...how do you _know _all of this?" she asked, not looking mad or impressed, but tired and wary.

She shrugged, feeling the fatigue catch on. She patted the work bench. "Arm here, please."

For the next hour, Sophie and Arcee were silent; Sophie working on Arcee's right arm on the workbench and Arcee sitting on the concrete beside her with her wheeled foot stretched out in front of her, both lost in their own thoughts. Sophie was fascinated by the layout and biology of the alien's appendage despite her pounding head. She connected segments to other modules and the modules to other components that linked to tubes with blue fluid that then moved away from her reach and tucked themselves neatly away. Eventually, enough room was made so that she could fit the weapon into the arm to replace the hand. In theory, Arcee should be able to switch between the weapon and her hand when she was finished. As she worked, she could almost sense the worry radiating from the slender alien. Sophie didn't have the inclination to think about it as she slotted one of the final components together and connected-

"Was that your sister?"

Sophie blinked and turned her head to the right to look up at Arcee, who was staring vacantly at the other end of the garage. "Excuse me?"

"That human female," she said in her crisp, clear voice. "The one with the colorful head."

Sophie's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh! Angel?" she asked incredulously, smiling slightly at the thought of it. "No, no, she is my supplier, but also a very good friend." She went back to repairing the arm. "Why?"

There was another long pause before Arcee responded. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"Not that I am aware of." she murmured, frowning slightly at the alien's arm to hide her puzzlement. Where was _this_ going?

"What about the...'Uncle Rob'?"

Sophie had to laugh at that. "No, he is certainly not my brother. And nor is he my Uncle, to be entirely honest."

In the corner of her eye, Sophie saw Arcee's brow plates crease on her otherwise blank, slated face. "Then why do you call him Uncle?"

Sophie shrugged. "It's a human thing, I guess..."

As Sophie finished the last of her work she became aware of Arcee's eyes on her, their blue light casting shadows on the scratched bench. "Humans are weird," she decided, seemingly gone back to her normal self, but when Sophie looked up, her expression was almost thoughtful.

Her eyebrow arched and her lips twitched. "Yeah, well, welcome to Earth,"

Arcee started to say something else but Sophie quickly shooshed her. "What?" she asked, sounding slightly annoyed and Sophie held up a hand.

"Do you hear that?" whispered Sophie and they both listened intently. It was a faint yet growing rumble moving down the highway, and Sophie gasped and pushed away from the workbench. "It's Uncle Rob! Quick, transform!"

Arcee looked worriedly at her weaponized right arm. "But-"

"It's done, the arm if fine. Now hurry up!" she hissed as she sprinted to Uncle Rob's side of the garage and vaulted into the couch, pretending to sleep as Rob's truck pulled into the driveway. Sophie felt a drop of sweat running down the side of her face as she listened to Arcee swear after smacking her head on the ceiling, making the tin roof shutter. The whirring and whining of her transformation stopped a second before Uncle Rob's heavy boots clopped into the garage. Too late, she realized, that pretending to sleep was the worst possible cover as she hardly ever slept and never took naps. She could have pretended to be working on something, but no, sleeping it was. _Idiot_, she thought to herself as Uncle Rob shuffled over and looked down at her.

To Sophie's great surprise, Rob didn't catch her out. Instead he sighed, "Abou' time..." and draped the same blue blanket over her just as Sophie did for him three days ago.

He waddled away, pausing when he probably saw Arcee's new and sudden paint-job before putting his toolbox down and disappearing into his room. Sophie listened to the door snap shut and the creak of the hinges of his bed before letting out the breath she didn't realize she was holding.

She slowly opened her eyes and looked over at the open roll-up door, spotting his white truck sitting in the drive. _Scratch that, he's the idiot,_ she thought and scoffed;leaving the door open for anyone to waltz in while they were both asleep. They would have been able to steal and do anything they wanted.

Sighing, Sophie drew her attention away from the door and idly fiddled with the blanket. After a moment, she pulled it closer to her face, examining the individual fibers and feeling the soft texture with the pads of her calloused fingers. Like everything at The Works, it smelled slightly of petrol, dryness and Uncle Rob. Instead of her usual head-ache, a thick lump formed in her throat. Suddenly it felt as though a rock dropped heavily and solidly into her gut and she fought back a sudden wave of panic.

She was going to leave Uncle Rob, that idiot, here all alone. How was he going to manage this place without her? Who will tell him to not drink the milk when its beyond its expiry date? Will he be okay? How could she even consider leaving The Works, her home for the past seven years? Did she really want to give it all up in a attempt to find the answers she never could?

While the dramatic part of her brain continued on its whirlwind of worries, the rest advised her to take a deep breath and set things out logically. She forced herself to relax into the lumpy couch's cushions and close her eyes.

Uncle Rob, of course, would have had to survive somehow before Sophie rocked into his life. She knew the business wasn't booming but Sophie also knew of Rob's wily ways of wrangling customers and that The Works would still be there whenever she came back. She admitted to herself that she would miss Banana and Dululu; the familiarity of home, the weather extremes, and even the crazy, crazy people.

Sophie sighed when she came to the biggest question of all; should she tell her Uncle that she was leaving?

She obviously couldn't tell him about Arcee or NEST or Diego Garcia. Definitely not Arcee; he would most likely try to advertise the alien and make people pay to see her. Or worse, trying to dismantle her and sell the parts. In fact, Sophie didn't want to involve anyone at Dululu at all, but that shred of guilt stubbornly held on and she surely could tell Uncle Rob that she was leaving home at least?

She glanced over at his door, hearing the rumble of his snore, and decided that she would. Despite all of his faults, which were many, Uncle Rob still deserved to know. He was the person that took her in and gave her a roof over her head when Sophie was little more then a lost, wandering, confused little girl. She owed him a lot. Sophie pondered on how she should break it to him, and wondered if he would understand. She had several, strong reasons to why she wanted leave with a sentient robotic alien being to find her friends; it was just that most of them she did not enjoy thinking about nor considering, let alone declaring them to Uncle Rob of all people.

Closing her eyes, she deserted the problem that was Uncle Rob momentarily and thought about what she would need and how Arcee and her would make the journey. She thought about how to catch NEST's attention and about how the injured and obviously weak alien in her garage could make the distance. She thought about Angel and the Pennyfeather family and Uncle Rob and even the strange occurrences that he had mentioned. She thought about the depressants sitting in the first aid cabinet over her workbench and the stash she hid in her room as a familiar stabbing settled between her eyes.

A cool breeze washed over her from the open door and Sophie shivered, clutching the blanket tighter and resisting the urge to pace or fidget or move in general. she wasn't worried about someone sneaking in; Sophie would she would still be awake and alert by the time the overcast afternoon slowly turned to night.


	9. Memory

Chapter 9 Memory

* * *

Author's Note:

_I had some trouble deciding what to name this chapter. It was a switch up between 'Memory' and 'Danger'. You guys can decide which fits best! :)_

_The song is 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' by Greenday._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

_The dented, white truck chugged down the highway, large tires sending up billows of dust that trailed behind it. Bright headlights illuminated the road and cut through the dark purple hue of a late afternoon on the edge of night. The cool air whipped through the open window with just a hint of the day's previous heat, snatching away the younger and slightly thinner Robert J. Clementine's voice as he sang to the blaring radio, tapping his long fingers against the steering wheel with the rhythm. _

_He watched the dirt road ahead of him with casual disinterest, his truck's lights casting fast shadows over the pebbles on the ground and he listened to the crunching of gravel underneath the tires. He turned up the radio so that he could hear the chorus._

_"_ _My shadow's the only one that walks beside me," Rob sang loudly, closing his eyes and bobbing his head to the music as he continued, _

_"My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating,_

_Sometimes I wish someone up there will find me,_

_'til then I walk alooooooone..."_

_Rob slowly opened his eyes as he continued to chant through the instrumental, _

_"_ _Aah-ah, aah-aah, ah-ah, ah-ah, aaah -" A person's figure appeared in his headlights, "-AHHHHH!"_

_His teeth clenched together as Rob wrenched his truck into a sharp swerve, stomping down on the brakes and making them screech in protest. There was a flash of bright blue before Rob clearly heard a distinct, sickening __**thud**__. _

_The truck jerked to a stop, kicking up a cloud of dust and rumbling with complaint as the engine stalled; Rob not having pressed in the clutch. His now sweaty hands held the wheel in a death-grip and his babyblue eyes were wide with shock, only able to watch as the dust settled. The truck had swerved so that it now faced slightly to the left, headlights illuminating the dry grass beyond instead of the road. Rob's mind was blank, distantly aware of his hitching breath as he felt a cold, sinking feeling in the bottom of his stomach. His heart threatened to jump from his throat as he spotted an uneven lump on the road; the details lost to the darkness as it sat outside of the truck's headlights. _

_Rob tried to swallow, but the tightness that seized his throat made him choke. Settling for a deep breath, he released the steering wheel and reached for the door with shaking hands. He opened it with a long creak, but couldn't move. The seatbelt. He unbuckled it and stumbled from the truck. _

_His eyes were immediately drawn to the right corner of the front of the vehicle. The headlight was cracked and the edge of the white bonnet was dented, but this was not what held his attention. It was black. A scorched, burnt black licked along the right side of the truck. Not thinking, Rob touched it, trying to scrub the marks away but the soot seemed to be ingrained in the metal. _

_There was a moan, and Rob's head whipped around towards the soft noise. His breathing was noisy to his own ears and Rob could clearly hear his heart thumping painfully in his great chest, but nothing mattered at that moment except the moving, disfigured suggestion of a person. Please let him be okay, please let him be okay, please..._

_A small hand fell into the pathway of light and Rob flinched violently, cowering away like he was the one in danger. He watched, frozen, one part fascination and three parts horror, as burning blue eyes opened and cut through the darkness._

_They stared, maybe at him or maybe not, before drooping shut once more, slender hand now grasping at the gravel and the figure strained. Another bright flash of blue and a white arch of energy stretched away from the person before snapping back into them, like a painful elastic band. The person whimpered quietly, and Rob deducted that she was a girl from the sound. He was soon proved correct as the figure slowly dragged herself into the light; the hand flowing into a scraped elbow which became a bony arm followed by shoulders and a wild, untamed mass of straw like hair. _

_Her head was bowed, presumably shielding her eyes from the harsh glare of the light as she heaved herself back onto her feet. Her movements were jerky and strangely disconnected, like a doll learning how to move. Another blue arch of electricity extended from her back; burning a hole through her already rugged clothing. It explored the ground around her before zapping back into her person. Both Rob and the girl shivered._

_There was blood on her skin and her torn night-gown, yet she had no wound. Rob felt the pressure in his chest ease slightly and he cleared his throat. "Arr -" his voice broke, "- Are ya' okay?"_

_The girl gave no sign that she heard him; head still bowed and crazy hair flowing over her shoulders and face, making her head looked too big for her rail-thin body. On closer inspection, she wasn't skinny, she was malnourished; her skin pulled too tight over her bones. The wrecked, flower nightie hung off her like a sheet on a hat-stand. _

_Robert began to repeat his question when the girl stiffened, her pale hands sliding up to cover her ears. He thought this was mighty rude despite the fact he had run her over, but then the girl doubled over as another bolt of white lightning emanated from her body. However, instead of striking the road, the girl strained and she somehow roped the energy back into her, almost as if she wanted to contain it. She was shuddering now and her form shimmered cracked with blue sparks as she repressed whatever was inside of her. There was a high, keening sound, and Rob startled and took a step back; the girl was making it. The noise flowed into a sequence of rasping and clicking and coughing. Her skin pulled even tighter around her frame._

_Rob didn't remember how long this continued for, but eventually the girl's hands dropped to her sides and something deep inside of her body seemed to unclench. Rob stayed frozen for quite some time, watching her warily for another light show but the girl just stood there, hunched over and swaying slightly. _

_He felt the sudden urge to just hop back into his truck and drive. Drive as far away as he could from this disturbing, unnatural...thing. Nobody would know._

_Rob instantly felt mortified at himself; he, the mighty Robert J. Clementine running away from a little girl? Preposterous!_

_"Hey?" he said, shuffling closer, "Hey!"_

_No answer, nor acknowledgement. _

_"Hey! Hey! Little girl? Are ya' okay? Little girl! Come on now, don't leave me hangin'."_

_Nothing. He then asked about her parents and family and if there was anyone he should call, anybody at all. Nothing. He walked around her, wondering if the girl was deaf and he started to call her names and insults. Most of which didn't make sense._

_"Stupid, fat, hat stand, dumb as a box of hammers, straight as a rainbow, pig face, ugly -"_

_He inevitable made the mistake of touching her; a volt of pure electricity surged through him and left him feeling fried and smelling of burnt hair and ozone. Eventually, he leaned against the front of the truck with a groan, his body casting a long shadow in the headlights as he studied the girl. He could still hear the radio playing faintly inside the vehicle. _

_He sighed heavily and rubbed the back of his neck, his eyelids heavy. God he was tired. "So what now?" he asked, frustrated but there was a pleading note in his voice. "Ya' just want to stand there, Sparks? Want me to drive off and leave ya' to ya' misery or whatever ya' do? If tha's how ya' want it, tha's fine by me!"_

_Rob was just about to storm off to wait in the truck but then stopped dead in his tracks. The girl's head slowly rose, her hair amplifying the effect of her movement. Blue eyes regarded him coldly, no longer glowing with energy, and Rob finally saw her face. _

_Wide eyes fringed with blonde lashes sat over a long nose; made seemingly larger by the gauntness that came with no food. Thin lips and a wide mouth were pursed before a strong chin, still rounded due to her young age which seemed to be about ten or so. Like the rest of her body, her face was smudged with dirt and grime and her feet were bloody as if she'd been walking for days. He was unnerved to see that the blue of her irises were surrounded by a web of red; deeply bloodshot._

_Rob realized with surprise that she was staring at him icily. "What? What up, Sparks? Changed ya' mind did ya'?"_

_ Her face pinched with annoyance. Despite the spiteful looks he was receiving, Rob was encouraged. "Well, come on now, Sparks. Let's go!" he waved his arms towards his truck exaggeratedly, and her eyes narrowed, thin lips pressing together in a tight line. "What? Let's go!"_

_A moment dragged by, and he thought she wasn't going to say anything per usual. But he was surprised again when her mouth opened and she replied in a croaky, raspy voice,_

_"Sophie,"_

_Rob blanked, and then his lips twitched beneath his beard. "What?"_

_"Sophie," she repeated, frowning at him. Her mouth moved around the word strange, as if she didn't know how to speak properly._

_He couldn't resist as a mischievous grin grew on his face. "'Sophie'?" he mocked, "What? Ya' don't like Sparks, Sparky?"_

_She looked pissed now, blue and red eyes glaring at him. "Sophie," she insisted._

_"Sparky,"_

_"Sophie,"_

_"Sparky!"_

_"Sophie!"_

_"SPARKY!"_

_"SOPHIE!"_

_And so, Sophie Sparks came to be._

* * *

Uncle Rob lay in his cot, watching the fan on the ceiling rotate lazily through the air. The bugs outside were chirping happily and calling to one another in the day's intense, morning heat. He reviewed his dream, or maybe he hadn't even fallen asleep and a stray memory pushed itself to the surface. A glance at the clock told him that it was 10:00 am. Sparky would be gone by now.

And sure enough, once he gathered the energy to leave his bed and walk into the garage, Sparky and her motorcycle were missing.

He sighed and hitched up his pink boxer shorts before waddling over to the toolbox to check what Sparky had taken with her. Rob abandoned the old memory for a newer, fresher one. Last night, Sparky had fetched them both a bottle of beer after dinner and sat him down. She told him that she was leaving The Works, and was probably not coming back for some time. She was real calm about it too; speaking composedly about how she wouldn't tell him of her reasons, but to be assured that she was 'looking for answers and a solution'. Whatever that meant. At the end of her small, practiced speech, Sparky told him that she would be departing early tomorrow morning. Rob knew that she wasn't asking for his permission, she was just stating the facts as she always did. She then took a sip of beer and waited for his response.

Uncle Rob admitted he might have been a little angry. He vaguely remembered lashing out at the girl, telling her how ungrateful she was and whatnot... but his tangent hadn't lasted long. He thought he felt, deep down, that this would happen someday. Even now, looking over her bare work bench and the empty first aid cabinet, Rob had long since felt a deep resignation that Sparky might someday leave.

He lifted up the roll-door and shuffled outside into the stifling sun. His eyes searched the highway for any sign or speck of Sparky in the distance, but true to her word, she was gone.

* * *

It was way too hot to be fully cased in a leather jacket, work-boots, helmet and jeans, but Sophie had no interest in suffering through another case of gravel rash as they roared down the highway. The offending wound was unwrapped and appropriately scabbing over; the only issue it had left was her jeans. She had briefly considered nicking Uncle Rob's Kevlar motorbike jeans, but they would never fit her. Instead, Sophie had been forced to sew them back together haphazardly with a chord because she didn't have enough money to spare on a new pair.

That morning, Arcee had been bursting with energy, nagging Sophie in her own subtle way to get going; glaring at her impatiently and honking until Sophie was tempted to disable the horn. Sophie admittedly dragged her feet somewhat, finding that for all her bluster of wanting to get out of The Works had ringed hollow now that she was actually doing it. As soon as the faded green building disappeared from Arcee's wing mirror, Sophie felt something break inside of her and drift away, back towards her home. Her eyes had stung and she found herself blinking rapidly beneath the helmet to dispel the ridiculous sensation.

Hours later, it was now mid-morning and her back was drenched with sweat underneath her heavy backpack. It was packed full of blueprints, pills, papers, tools, her small stash of money and dissembled parts. She hid the contents from Arcee, not wanting her to see the more dangerous items of the collection and make her even more wary of her. The only other thing she had on her person was a metal cylinder the size of a tennis ball with a pin on top. Arcee had eyed suspiciously but let it go without a comment. Sophie attached the cylinder to her black leather belt, (old birthday gift from Angel), and was the only other piece of clothing she had apart from the ones she wore.

Sophie rolled her head around and bunched her shoulders, hearing the bones pop as she stretched minutely and feeling the hot wind against her neck. The road ahead was shimmering with heat, and Sophie watched the mirage swim as a drop of sweat rolled down between her eyes where a migraine had begun to form. It was not pleasant, and she had an odd feeling that Arcee did not appreciate the temperature either, despite her surprisingly quick recovery from her injuries. Sophie shifted her grip on the slippery handlebars to insure she didn't fall off.

Occasionally, they would pass an area on the side of the road which looked dug up; the hard yellow and brown soil unearthed like someone had gone mad with a plow. Sophie was too dizzy and tired to focus on the fact and was preoccupied with wondering where they were going to stay when they reached Brisbane. Definitely somewhere with internet connection...

She had a plan, of course. It took her a while to come up with it, despite its simplicity. They would go to Brisbane, the closest of Australia's capital cities, and make some noise to attract NEST's attention. Sophie had considered letting Arcee transform in the middle of a crowded street, but quickly discarded the notion for something much simpler and less risky. Marie Pennyfeather had told her that the military had been taking down any videos or images on the internet that displayed classified information. And she was right; the videos on Mission city hadn't lasted more than a day. Therefore, all Sophie had to do is keep uploading a whole lot of that confidential info so that the military will track down the source and come check what all the fuss is about.

Why Brisbane? Because its crowded, and because it's not Banana. Sophie had meant it when she didn't want the good and admittedly eccentric folks of Banana involved, therefore she was taking the issue away from home. And Brisbane having a population of 2.15 million was helpful also; it meant that NEST wouldn't do anything too drastic with all those people around.

Sophie was so busy thinking that she didn't even notice the violently pink and white ice-cream truck until it sped right past them, blaring its annoyingly cheesy song full-volume, as if for their benefit, and making her headache spike. She resisted the urge to touch her head as she flinched with the unexpected pain. She listened cautiously as the disgustingly cheerful sound faded away in the distance before squinting through the dust it left behind.

She didn't have time to wonder why an ice-cream truck was speeding on the remote Leichhardt highway because it was then that she took full notification of the tampered terrain around her. Dirt was spilled across the road and on either side the soil had been puckered and interfered with. This continued for several kilometers and she felt Arcee shutter with frustration as the sediment caught on her wheels and flicked up underneath her red casing; ruining her shiny paintjob. Sophie's own headache was becoming progressively worse as they rocketed along, and she remembered Uncle Rob's warning about the strange happenings occurring of late and thought that they might have a nugget of truth in them after all.

They had begun to approach a section of the highway in which the land on the left side of the road declined abruptly. Sophie glanced at the sharp slope distantly, feeling her face twist into grimace of sudden pain as she gripped the handlebars with shaking, sweaty hands. Her head was in a vice, someone slowly tightening the pressure until it felt like her brain would burst. The migraine reached new heights with each excruciating throb and her forehead broke out into a cold sweat. She was vaguely aware of Arcee's distorted voice coming through the radio, asking her something... but the road was hazy and a feeling nausea rolled through her, making her throat seize tightly. It's never been this bad before.

Sophie soon reached her limit and moved to pull over when the ground exploded to her right in a vicious whirlwind of dirt, rotating razors, and metallic teeth. The monstrosity screamed and the vice slammed shut, her head splitting as it crashed into them, sending both flying off the road.


	10. Fight

Chapter 10 Fight

* * *

Author's Note:

_Hey guys,_

_I'm soooooooooo sorry about the late update, but my school suddenly decided to utterly destroy my spare time with assignments and exams. It might be like this until I finish for the holidays, so I apologize in advance._

_Also, I just realized that I can message you back using 'Private Messaging' lol._

_A huge thanks to everyone who commented!_

_Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!_

* * *

(previous)

_Sophie soon reached her limit and moved to pull over when the ground exploded to her right in a vicious whirlwind of dirt, razors, red light and metallic teeth. The monstrosity screamed and the vice slammed shut, her head splitting as it crashed into them, sending both flying off the road. _

* * *

Sophie was airborne; heart drifting up towards her mouth before she slammed back into the ground with a grunt and rolled uncontrollably down the severe slope, feeling her backpack being wrenched from her shoulders and her limbs getting knocked and jarred by the rocks and solid earth beneath her. All around were the grinding screeches and shrieks and the loud locking of metallic parts that drilled into the depths of her mind. Her vision wobbled ecstatically with long lines of Cybertronian and she caught glimpses of a half-transformed Arcee grappling with the much larger creature as they all plummeted down the hill in a cloud of dust and dirt.

The ground evened out and Sophie skidded painfully to a stop, disorientated and her head pounding with hurt. Dizzily, her hands reached up to touch it, but she was still wearing her helmet and her fingers bumped uselessly against the plastic. There was a whistling noise before Sophie was shocked out of her daze when the tangled mass of flailing robotic limbs landed inches away with a shuddering **thunk**.

Sophie glimpsed a wicked set of razor mandibles and two pairs of round, bulb-like eyes before Arcee's scarlet arm appeared and slammed it's ugly face into the dirt. Sophie scooted away from the writhing mass and stumbled to her feet, darting away to avoid being squashed into a pulp. It seemed so unreal, so silly yet blindingly clear underneath the midday sun that something so wild and dangerous could exist. As she ran, Sophie twisted her head over her shoulder to see Arcee push away to distanced herself from her opponent, whom quickly tunneled clumsily back into the ground once they were separated, disappearing from view.

Sophie slowed into a backwards walk and frowned at the patch of disturbed earth the monstrosity left behind, puzzled and breathing heavily. She switched to look questionably at Arcee, who was fully transformed and swinging around on her single wheel, aiming her new weapon at the ground. Her red armor was already scratched and severely dented and she also seemed incredible tense; the mechanisms in her body not allowing any give, the plates on either side of her head now covering her face protectively, and her blue eyes shined with anger beneath the shield as she eyed the earth suspiciously. Her paranoia caught on and Sophie found herself suppressing the urge to fidget nervously.

After a impossibly long minute of dead silence and suffocating heat, Arcee relaxed minutely and slightly lowered her gun. Sophie pulled off her helmet and sucked in a breath of hot air.

"What the hell was-"

**BAM**

Sophie felt the stinging heat from Arcee's weapon as it shot a burning blue flash of electricity right over her shoulder, singing her hair and blistering her right cheek. An instant later there was a terrible shriek, too close behind her. Sophie whipped around just in time to see a stinger-like appendage ricochet back from the projectile before rearing forward and catching her in the face with an audible _crunch_. Sophie felt her nose break and her back hit the ground.

She watched, disorientated, as the mechanized, grey underside of the machine moved over her as it jumped and launched itself at Arcee, spraying her with dirt. Sophie took note of its six small side legs and strangely curved stinger-like tail before it flew from view. Something warm trickled down her chin and she lifted a hand to touch her wet face. It came away covered with a surprising amount of blood considering how little pain she felt.

A tearing screech tore her attention away and a piece of Arcee's red armor plating hit the ground nearby. Sophie quickly scrambled to her feet, her nose still not hurting as much as she thought it would, while she analyzed the battle. Arcee was small, but swift and flexible as she rolled and dodged the wild, spinning attacks of her opponent. On closer inspection, the Decepticon's structure reminded her oddly of a scorpion, and as she watched, an intense, shimmering haze of energy shot from its serrated pincers. Arcee accelerated out of the way, lowering her body close to the ground as she drifted across the dirt and blasted her opponent in the face.

She was doing well, Sophie had to admit, but even as she watched the giant scorpion's damaged stinger flung itself into Arcee's body, completely tearing through the makeshift armor, and ripped out a grey component with a splatter of glistening blue liquid. Sophie knew that Arcee had been still trying to regenerate enough energon, (or blood), to complete the journey, let alone fight. Also, her improvised armor of flimsy human-made alloy was absolute rubbish against the unknown metal of an alien species. Arcee wouldn't last long.

Sophie bit her lip hard, thinking furiously, when she spotted a dark lump just beyond the battle of the titans. Her backpack!

Scolding herself for not realizing sooner, Sophie's hand flew to her belt and felt for the metal cylinder. Not feeling it, she glanced down and growled in frustration, anger swelling inside her.

**_WHERE THE F #K IS IT!?_**

Her eyes scoured the ground frantically, hyper-aware of the mega death battle ahead of her, until she spotted a glint of metal shining in the sand. Behind the mega death battle.

Sophie sighed and took off in a sprint, veering to the far right so that she wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. She could feel the side of her torn jeans sticking to her leg and figured that the scabs had probably reopened. She pushed past the terrifying screeches and unearthly noises of the alien struggle and headed for the cylinder. Just as her legs began to burn, Sophie scooped the sun-warmed ball from the dirt and cupped a hand around her mouth, yelling "ARCEE!"

"WHAT!?"

"COME OVER TO ME AND GET THAT THING TO FOLLOW YOU!"

"_WHAT!?_" she screamed incredulously, electronic voice grating on Sophie's ears as she swiftly dodged another stinging blow. Sophie began running straight towards them as fast as she could.

"_JUST DO IT!_"

Arcee shot her another doubtful look but spun gracefully around her enemy and accelerated over to Sophie, glancing over her shoulder at the mass of swirling razors. "You're crazy..." she muttered as she zoomed past her, and Sophie kept running, hand gripping the cylinder tightly, watching the monstrosity barrel towards her with sickening speed.

As the distance closed to fifteen meters, the Decepticon leapt into the air, pincers whirling and mandibles clicking as it headed for her. At the same moment, Sophie pulled the pin off the metal cylinder and felt it grow brilliantly hot in her hands. Just before impact, Sophie dropped to her knees and lobbed the glowing cylinder up into the monster's mouth. She skidded along the hard earth, knees burning from the friction and back aching as she leaned as far back as she could as the Decepticon's underbelly passed over her once more. She gritted her teeth until the massive shadow disappeared and slumped where she stopped, breathing rapidly.

The earth shook from their opponent's uneven landing and Sophie unwillingly sat up and twisted around to see if her prototype was successful.

The Decepticon was emitting a series of surprised and shocked shrieks as it shuddered violently and writhed wildly, clawing at the dirt. Arcee dodged its lashing tail and hastily sped to a appropriate distance as blue arch's of electricity began to shoot from the monster's mouth. Sophie suddenly thought this was a pretty good idea and forced herself to her feet, staggering away from the tortured alien as a pained haze closed over her mind.

"3...

2...

1..."

**BOOM**

There was a final desperate scream and the ground shuddered beneath Sophie's feet once more. She felt the sudden heat on her back and saw her own shadow rise in front of her with the flash of blue light. Then it was over.

Sophie didn't need to turn around to know that a scorched, metal corpse lay behind her. The acrid and dry odor of smoke filled the air. She felt strangely empty and little bit sad, and quite suddenly she had to sit down.

"Round two's a bitch," she heard Arcee say as she rolled up beside her, rocks crackling underneath her wheels.

Sophie glanced up at her and watched as she carefully lowered herself to the ground with a long, weary vent of air. She examined Arcee's smashed armor, cracked plates, torn face and busted tire with a sigh of her own. "Sorry about your paint job..." she muttered, and smirked.

Arcee laughed bitterly and jabbed a large finger at Sophie's nose. "Sorry about your face,"

Sophie let her back rest against the ground so that she was then staring at the perfect blue sky instead of all the red on her jacket, her eyelids heavy. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that pointing is rude?" she mumbled, barely aware of the bullshit coming out of her mouth as fatigue weighed down her limbs. Her mind was a mess; hazed and fogged but somehow still managing to race a million miles an hour. She narrowed her eyes and concentrated with all her might on the blue above her, attempting to still her thoughts. She just really wanted to sleep...

In that moment, an odd and completely irrelevant memory resurfaced. She frowned. "Arcee?"

"Hmm?" she hummed and Sophie heard her joints creak as Arcee finally unwind with exhaustion. Sophie doubted that Arcee could move or transform even if she wanted too, which produced a whole new set of problems of how they were going to get to Brisbane but of course she wasn't going to think about that right now because she _was so damn tired_.

Sophie remembered that she had called Arcee's name and refocused. "Do you have siblings?"

There was a long pause, so long that Sophie had begun to think that she had fallen asleep when there was just a hint of a-

"Yes,"

Another silence.

"Why do you ask?"

Sophie considered this, closing her eyes to block out all the harsh color and replayed the memory. "A few days ago you were strangely insistent on whether I had a brother or sister."

"...and that made you think that I had one?" she asked skeptically, her voice still sharp as knifes despite her weariness.

Sophie gave a weak shrug and started to feel herself drift away. "Do you?"

Another silence as Arcee deliberated and Sophie struggled to stay conscious; her very first fight against sleep. She wanted to let the tempting nothingness overtake her, but Sophie grabbed a pebble beside her and squeezed it until it hurt. For some reason, it seemed very important that she heard Arcee's answer.

"Two," Arcee answered eventually, a ting of sadness evident in her unusually quiet and tired tone. "Two,"

And that was it for Sophie; the blissful void of peacefulness descending over her like a blanket, despite the stifling heat around her. Natural sleep was a rare treat for Sophie so she was pretty sure that underneath the blood, dirt and sweat, a smile curved her lips.

The last thing she registered before fading away was the faint, annoying jingle of an nauseatingly merry and familiar tune, echoing across the highway and growing in volume on approach.


	11. Interrogation

Chapter 11 Interrogation

* * *

Author's Note:

_This chapter's a bit short, sorry, but I hope you like it._

_Also, does anyone know who that old, blue autobot with the glasses is in the 2nd movie? No matter how many times I watch it I can't catch his name. I'll probably just call him Wheeljack or something lol._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

If Sophie was able, as soon as she fell asleep she would have realized why she despised natural rest so much.

Dreams.

It wasn't anything specific though. A confusing jumble of information and snippets of memories that she knew weren't hers. The only thing that felt tangible was the faint feeling of soft sand between her toes while thousands and thousands years of data flowed through her. It was comparable to millions of voices talking, screaming to her at the same time. It was distressing, to say the least, and always ended on the same image; a destroyed, smoldering world.

The scene provoked a great, aching sadness that clenched her insides and filled her with longing and regret. It was unreasonable, but it was as though she was watching The Works being destroyed and the residents of Banana trying to kill each other. The sand between her feet disappeared and she felt herself falling before she jolted awake, stomach twisting inside her with imaginary impact.

Panic flickered through her as she flinched against the restraints around her wrists, which were bound to the arms of a chair. Her eyes snapped open, and instantly squeezed back together after being blinded from the harsh light hovering above her. Sophie gritted her teeth and tried to not throw up as she became aware of the nauseating combination of stiff limbs, pounding headache and drug-induced haze that clouded her mind.

Sophie cracked open her eyes again, squinting while she waited for her irises to adjust. She was in a small, sickish green room sitting on an uncomfortable steel chair that appeared to be bolted to the floor. The only light present was emitted by the light bulb hanging from the chain above her. She was still dressed in her ruined jeans and now brownish-white singlet, but her leather jacket was laying beside her in a scuffled mess. A plain, metallic desk stretched out in front of her in where two men were sitting opposite.

The man to the right was peering at her suspiciously through a pair of glasses perched on his narrow nose and sat with a distinct air of superiority in his crisp, formal grey suit. The effect was slightly ruined by the tomato sauce stain on his blue tie, but Sophie felt no need to point this out. To the left, the younger tan guy with a boyish face was in strict contrast; wearing a simple and clean khaki uniform that held no logo, abbreviations, or symbols. It was probably intentional. Nevertheless, it was obvious to Sophie to where they were from.

N.E.S.T

"Finally awake, huh?" said the guy in the suit with an unpleasantly nonchalant voice, like it didn't really matter either way. The young guy shot him a long-suffering look, but it was gone in an instant.

Sophie studied him somewhat drowsily through squinted eyes. "Clearly..."

To her disappointment, Sophie's voice was raspy and quiet. She cleared her dry throat and tried to swallow when she realized how parched her mouth was, ignoring how the annoying man's eyes narrowed further. She felt slightly indignant of how clean they were and how dirty she still was; the stitched jean legs in front of her caked with sand, skin coated with dirt and she didn't even want to think about her hair. She could only hope that they had the common decency to wipe the blood off her face. "How long was I out?" she asked.

"13 hours-" Soldier boy started, but the bureaucrat cut in with a swift, sharp wave of his hand. He had a very nice and shiny gold Rolex on his left wrist.

"We're the ones asking the questions," he warned stiffly, shooting his companion a disapproving look.

"13 hours, you say?"

"That's-"

"Quite a long time..."

"Listen here-"

"It took enough sedatives to put down a rhino, actually." said the Soldier boy, looking sheepish, and Sophie gave him an appraising look.

"That's interesting." And it _was_. It meant that she wouldn't have to worry about running out of medication and that they were most likely at Diego Garcia right now, since it took about 11 hours and 30 minutes to get there by plane."What is your name?"

"Don't-"

"Daniel Rogers. Private."

"Stop-"

"Sophie," she greeted, "A pleasure, Daniel Rogers Private-"

**BAM**

The older man slammed his fist loudly down onto the metallic table, face flushing with anger and making the boy jump. "_Enough!_" he yelled, "I don't think you quite understand the predicament you are in, _missy_. You are not in charge. _I am_! And if you don't answer my questions, you better be prepared to stand before the federal court!"

Sophie bristled at this. _Missy? _She didn't let her own annoyance show on her face and maintained a respectably polite tone.

"Take me to court?" she smirked, "I don't think so..."

"_Do think so!_" he shouted, half-standing in the face of her indifference.

"If I throw a stick, will you leave?"

"_Listen-_"

"Do you have anger issues? I think you have anger issues."

"Be _quiet!_"

"Could I please have some water?"

"_NO!_" he roared.

There was a moment of awkward silence, filled only by the politician's heavy breathing and the faint sizzling of his ego evaporating as he realized the inappropriateness of his outburst. He sat down slowly and withdrew his hand rather pathetically; it was already bruising. Sophie watched him smugly. Nothing felt better then embarrassing a politician in front of his subordinate. Private Daniel Rogers looked on quietly.

"I wasn't kidding about that water, though." she croaked, smile fading.

Daniel's face creased apologetically. "I'm afraid you'll have to wait until this is over, Miss...?

"Just Sophie," she said and turned to the deflated man beside him. "And by the way, who are you?"

He sighed, apparently deciding to take a more diplomatic approach. "Director Galloway,"

"So what do you want me for, Director Galloway." It must be pretty damn important, considering he just threatened a 17 year old girl with federal court.

He cleared his throat and straightened his suit, still not noticing the red stain on his tie as he fixed his posture. He looked her straight in the eye, most likely trying to unnerve her. It was not effective. "You were found in the possession of extremely classified information and multiple very dangerous and very _illegal_ weapons."

"Illegal weapons..." murmured Sophie and lowered her eyes in thought, frowning slightly. That light bulb was really bright.

"It is of no use telling me," he continued professionally, picking an invisible speck of flint off his sleeve, "that you were unaware of the three grenade-like objects and illicit blueprints, which also contained harmful and delicate information, that were under you ownership at the time."

Sophie blinked and looked up in surprise. "Hmm? Oh. No, I am perfectly aware, thank you. I was just wondering; is there any chance that I could get those back?"

Galloway gave her a hard look.

"I guess not then..."

"Therefore you admit that you knowingly had these items in your possession?" said Galloway triumphantly.

"Certainly," admitted Sophie, shrugging. "However, I am curious to know how you managed to _read_ my blueprints, and understand what they were about."

There was a tense pause, and she could see Galloway's throat move as he swallowed. When no one answered, Sophie smiled and continued. "I am also very interested in how my friend is fairing at the present time."

"Friend?" asked Daniel a tad too innocently.

Sophie's smile broadened but her eyes narrowed. "Yeah, she's pretty massive and made of metal. Seen her around?"

For a second it looked like they were going to be stupid and deny everything, but then they probably realized that through her notes written in Cybertronian and the unfamiliar technology, Sophie understood a lot more then they wanted her too. It didn't stop the Director from trying though.

"That's classified information," he told her weakly, eyes flicking to the wall beside them.

Sophie just laughed.


	12. First Impressions

Chapter 12 First Impressions

* * *

Author's Note:

_Longest...chapter...EVER_

_I hope you guys like it, and if anybody wants to see what Diego Garcia actually looks like, just put it into Google maps._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

Heat enveloped her as soon as she crossed the threshold of the air-conditioned office building and into the sun. It was a very different type of warmth to Banana; her home was dry and burning, while here was humid and sticky. The breeze was a welcomed relief as it ruffled through her matted hair and carried the salty, refreshing smell of the sea. Sophie closed her eyes and took a deep breath, feeling it fill her lungs and smiling with satisfaction as she exhaled.

_Diego Garcia_.

She got there. Smack bang in the middle of the British Indian Ocean Territory. She did it, none worse for wear.

_Well, maybe not totally 'none worse for wear'_, she thought, pinching her sore nose with two fingers, feeling for fractures as she followed Daniel to the small Army jeep parked out the front of the large, nondescript grey building. A grassy patch contained a memorial that read _Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty_.

Sophie had gotten her water, along with food and a much needed trip to the toilet. And so far, she was doing a pretty brilliant job at ignoring all the bewildered stares she had been receiving in the office building. Thankfully, she had been given a long pair of clean Khaki pants and a thin jacket to drape over her soiled white singlet. Sophie carried her own leather jacket and old jeans in one hand and kept Angel's lucky leather belt buckled around her new pants.

"Sorry about the nose," Daniel said, climbing into the driver's seat and fumbling for the keys.

Sophie winced, finally feeling the break beneath her fingertips. Her mind wandered back to the insane battle before effectively blocking it out. "It doesn't look too bent, does it?" she asked when she settled herself into the passenger's seat and showed him.

He shook his head and started the ignition. "Just a little swollen, I suppose. Broken noses usually look a lot worse than they are first off. Somebody set it for you when you were out of it,"

She sighed in relief and stopped touching it, leaning against her hard seat and began absorbing everything around her. It was a medium sized car park surrounded by a dense array of tropical palms, ferns and trees. There was a slight bump as they pulled out of the car park's concreted ground and onto a long, unpaved road of white gravel. It took her a moment to realize what it was; crushed white coral. As they accelerated down the road, Sophie caught flashes of turquoise blue through the thick, green foliage and could hear the sea rumbling in her ears. The wind felt so good against her face that she stretched her arms up into the air and shook her head like a dog, spraying Daniel with sand. He sputtered and she laughed softly to herself, feeling the strangest relief. If she hadn't known this was a military base, it could've easily passed for a holiday destination.

The trees thinned out slightly and the coral road widened, revealing rows upon rows of rectangular, army green buildings.

"These are the Barracks!" called Daniel, slowing down. "This is where you'll be staying; eating, sleeping, etc. You see those large, flat white buildings?" he asked and she nodded, spotting their low roofs easily through all the green. "Those are the cafeterias. You'll be given the schedule for breakfast and dinner later."

Sophie's eyes narrowed as the jeep slowed even further. "I thought we were going past the airstrip, Private."

He looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Ye-Yeah...About that, Galloway- _Director_ Galloway- suggested that it might be a good idea to rest for awhile and-"

She shot him a sharp look. "Did he, now." muttered Sophie quietly, her voice bitter. She then spoke louder and with more confidence. "Daniel, I know that you have orders but you need to understand that the deal I made with our dear Director allows me not to be strictly confined at this moment of time. Hence the lack of restraints."

He glanced hesitantly at Sophie's face and she smiled reassuringly, trying to become the picture of honesty. Her acting skills were lacking but she was quickly discovering Daniel to be a total pushover. Sophie had no doubt that Galloway had put her under house arrest until her position at the base was confirmed. Which would be a very, _very _long time considering how much the Director wanted her to disappear. It was far better to announce her presence and her knowledge amongst the alien residents of the island to insure her place. That was Plan A. Hopefully she wouldn't have to resort to Plan B, which involved a fair amount of blackmail and threats, but she would if she had too. Sophie was staying.

Daniel sighed and caved in, pressing his foot back on the accelerator and they rumbled towards the airstrip. He knew that it was an awkward situation; Sophie not being able to leave because of how much she knew and NEST's reluctance to work with her. She had been counting on him to be dim enough to not ask a superior. The gamble paid off, even if it made her feel slightly guilty.

Now, Sophie just leaned back and enjoyed the ride, watching the various men and women in their NEST uniforms pass by as the jeep left the Barracks and entered the airstrip. There was another slight bump as it moved off the coral road and onto the runway's long and smooth pavement.

Sophie watched the resting fighter jets parked along the bay area with interest, ignoring the oceanic view on her other side.

"Usually we would be driving on the road behind the airport, but there's no scheduled arrivals or take offs today so driving along the airstrip is fine." Daniel chatted and then noticed Sophie's particularly strong attention to the white building with a large red cross on its roof. "The Medical Bay," he told her unnecessarily.

It was a problem, but not an unexpected one; of course the Med bay would be located near the airport, the busy, general centre of the island. If any soldiers had been injured on a mission they could be moved straight off the plane and into a gurney. This also meant that it had top-notch security; even now Sophie could see security cameras lodged in multiple, unreachable places. This presented an issue, but she was confident that she would be able to work around it.

As the Medical Bay disappeared, Sophie faced forward to the breeze once more and frowned in thought. Just above her eyes, a slow ache had begun to form, slowly tightening before she even realized it was there. She was so used to them. Sophie sighed and was about to close her eyes, effectively blocking off further conversation, when she caught a speck of red in the distance.

She squinted at the growing scarlet spot, and her lips twitched. She stood up in the moving jeep, disregarding Daniel's surprised gasp as she leaned on the top of the windshield while cupping her hands around her mouth and yelling, "ARCEE!"

Her voice was buffered by the wind but the motorcycle continued to approach at speed; Sophie's own jeep slowing to a stop with Private Roger's indecision. Her headache grew, but she brushed it aside and frowned as she watched Arcee race closer, not slowing down.

Just when Sophie began to feel the injustice of being ignored, Arcee's handlebars jammed to the right.

Sophie was convinced that she was going to have to see a replay of their previous accident right then and there when Arcee's new tires locked and she skidded. Daniel was feeling similarly, considering the choking noises he was making. However, as soon as she entered the impossible turn, Arcee used the loss of traction in her rear wheel to control herself so that she drifted gracefully across the airstrip. Sophie listened to the high pitch squeal of rubber against bitumen and watched until Arcee slid smoothly to a stop by her passenger door, facing the same direction as them, none worse for wear.

Sophie snorted. "Show off," she muttered and considered the alien's new appearance while Daniel tried not to go into cardiac arrest. Arcee revved her engine impressively and Sophie shook her head in disbelief. " You've only been here are few hours and you've already upgraded?" she asked. "It's almost like you weren't keen at all on the body I personally crafted for you."

Despite her mocking complaints, Sophie couldn't help but admire the glossy sheen of the smooth and sharp 2006 Buell firebolt sitting beside her in all of its aerodynamic beauty. And if she wasn't mistaken, a strong tint of pink had been incorporated in with the cherry red casing. Sophie found this somewhat amusing.

Arcee made a skeptical, electronic sound through the radio. "I'm sure that my maneuver just now was more than enough proof of how much better my current alt mode is," she told Sophie mildly with her familiarly low and womanly voice. A touch of scorn entered her tone. "That other one, however...Well, let's just say that I won't be getting armor from you anytime soon."

Sophie suppressed a smile and shrugged nonchalantly. "I always thought the homemade look was a nice touch, actually."

"As I can see, sandman."

Sophie shook her hair again and grains of dirt rained onto the pretty Buell firebolt's seat beside her. "Nice Earth reference,"

"Thanks..."

Daniel looked lost but remained politely silent through the swift exchange of complete bullshit. Sophie glanced at him apologetically before swinging out of the jeep and onto the motorcycle. An expression of panic flickered across his boyish face. "Hey! What are you-"

Arcee's engine roared fantastically with ignition and Sophie mouthed '_Sorry' _to Daniel before they were shooting down the last section of the airstrip, leaving him and his small jeep behind. She felt bad that their little stunt will probably get him into trouble with his superiors. However, her nagging guilt was soon washed away by the exhilaration of feeling the power of such an incredible engine rocketing them down the road.

A moment later, the airstrip widened dramatically and the strange party found themselves in a massive concrete courtyard which bustled with people doing various jobs; recruits jogging, soldiers transporting supplies in green jeeps, and even a scorched jet being towed back to the airstrip. Sophie watched it curiously as Arcee steered to right, simultaneously avoiding the broken jet and drawing them closer to an absolutely massive construct of what appeared to be two aircraft Hangars connected together by a large grey building of several stories.

The pair attracted numerous inquisitive stares yet no one moved to stop them. Sophie's head was splittingly painful now and a drop of sweat rolled down her face in the sticky heat, but she refused to let it distract her as they entered the shade of the closest Hangar.

Inside was large and spacious with high walkways lining the edges of the room. Several helicopters sat neatly on the right side of the space where an assortment of technicians and electricians were currently tending to them. The rafted ceiling was higher than it looked with a single row of powerful, round lights stretched down the centre. They were off; the light from outside providing sufficient light for the workers. The floor was a smooth white grey with the occasional black number and striped line, presumably showing stations of where military vehicles were parked at night. Raised platforms divided much of the space and held various interesting objects.

Arcee's tires hardly squeaked as they rolled to a stop and Sophie clambered off her comfortable leather seat. She moved away from Arcee as a faint whine signaled her transformation. Sure enough, the 2006 Buell firebolt split and separated, moving quickly and smoothly into her other form with minimal effort, as if showing off that she could manage it beautifully.

Sophie studied her briefly, noting that all of her previous jagged angles and bulky armor seemed to have been replaced with a nimble and sleek 10 foot frame with polished red edges cutting from the side of her metal face. Then Sophie frowned. "Could nobody fix your legs?"

Arcee looked down from her purposely complimentary pose and relaxed and shrugged her shoulders, one of them still decorated with the front of her bike mode. "I'm kind of used to it," she told her, and then skated around Sophie on her single leg, uncomfortably close, before continuing further into the Hangar.

Sophie sighed and rubbed her head as she followed Arcee's trail, picking out bits of dried Australian grass from the nest of her hair and trying her best to ignore the surprisingly intense pain assaulting her. The technicians on the black helicopters casted her curious looks, but soon returned to their work. Apparently having an alien with you is similar to having an all-access pass.

"So, is it just you here?" asked Sophie to Arcee's retreating back. She was mostly joking; Sophie was very confident that there were more.

"Fortunately, no." called Arcee, swerving on the shiny floors lazily. "They're in a meeting, apparently,"

Sophie perked up about this. "What about?"

Arcee twisted so that she was facing Sophie, obviously not concerned with bumping into anything behind her. She slowed her pace slightly for Sophie to almost catch-up, but always stayed a few steps ahead. She shrugged in an attempt to appear indifferent, but a frustrated edge had crept into her voice. "I only just got here, remember? Not like they're going to suddenly share every detail..."

Sophie paused in her analysis and considered her. "What about your sisters?"

Arcee glanced at her sharply. "...you remember that, huh?"

Sophie didn't want to explain how she guessed on instinct that Arcee's two siblings were female so she just answered, "Yes,"

Arcee stopped rolling backwards and slumped slightly, sighing rather dejectedly. "You have a good memory," she muttered and Sophie smiled dryly. _Only for the past seven years..._

"And no," Arcee continued, her previous irritation returning, "They won't tell me a thing about them, but I'm pretty sure they're not on Earth."

"What makes you think so?" asked Sophie, walking past an ice-cream truck.

"I don't know!" Arcee retorted defensively, as if she thought Sophie was ridiculing her. She turned her back on her and began rolling again."It's just a feeling."

Sophie stared at her plated back and sighed, following Arcee once more. For Sophie, 'feelings' weren't enough to decide much of anything. But despite their turbulent relationship, Sophie had begun to think of Arcee as a friend than just a ticket into NEST. Anyway, Sophie had long decided to conduct a bit of 'research'; she might as well look into Arcee's sisters as well.

On a different page, Sophie was beginning to feel concerned about her own precarious situation; she needed to attract some attention quick before Daniel or Galloway hunted her down and stuck her in a cell. She was also desperately needing some aspirin, but all of her medication was in her backpack with her blueprints, and who knew where that could've ended up-

Sophie stopped walking. Her eyes narrowed. For a few seconds, her thoughts miraculously froze like a startled animal, before kicking into overdrive as Sophie slowly swiveled around on the spot to stare at that fucking pink and white ice-cream truck wedged between two helicopters.

There was a long moment of tense silence; Sophie glaring and the ice-cream truck staying rock still. Sophie couldn't believe that she just walked past it without noticing. It was like not seeing a flamingo amongst a murder of crows. The truck shuddered slightly and Sophie heard a quiet whispering. "I think it saw us-"

'"_Shhhh!_"

"But-"

"_Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hh_-"

"Don't '_shh_' me, biiaatch! Come over there an kick yo' ass,"

"We ninja right now so shut yo' mouth!"

"You blind or somethin', bro. I say we ditch it."

"See? See! Da's why we didn't get on tha' mission. You!"

They were getting pretty loud now and the truck was starting to shake, consequently bumping the helicopters beside it. Arcee paused to watch as well.

"Aww, no you didn't!"

"Whatchu gonna do, huh? Whatchu-"

There was a long screeching noise as a panel of the truck flew open, as if kicked from the inside, and scrapped against the side of a helicopter. Sophie winced at the sound, and the technicians held on for dear life as the aircrafts began to rock wildly while the ice-cream van had a some sort of weird, internal battle.

"OWW!"

"Well, Da's what yo' get,"

**BANG**

"MOTHA-"

"Yeah? Howzat feel, bro? Right in da' face."

"Dat's not ma' face!"

Sophie glanced up at Arcee, whose expression was caught between amusement and annoyance. She caught Arcee's eye and Sophie raised her eyebrows, mouthing _'what?_'. Arcee sniggered and Sophie shook her head in faint disbelief, returning her gaze to the jumbled mess of pink and white between the dense black. It seemed they were having some issues with transforming.

The doors splintered and tried to retract, but the moving white bonnet got in the way and they clashed loudly. The tires attempted to shift their position, but the only thing it accomplished was rocking the entire mess over into the helicopter on its right, denting it severely.

One of the older technicians wearing a blue jumpsuit and cap on that particular aircraft called out angrily, "Boys! Take it somewhere else!"

Probably deciding it was more trouble than it was worth, the struggling vehicle tumbled from between the helicopters and Sophie blinked as they proceeded to separate into two halves; one white, one pink. Their transformation was distinctly more clunky than Arcee's graceful spins; thick arms forming and two bulky bodies becoming recognizable through the rearranging parts before both of the aliens tripped and landed at Sophie and Arcee's feet with a loud groan. Sophie took a few slow steps backwards and Arcee sniggered again, but then rolled back with her.

"Er..." said Sophie, unsure of how to start. The two robots immediately hushed up when she opened her mouth. For a moment, it was just Arcee and Sophie looking down at them, and them looking up at Arcee and Sophie. Then the white plated one with an ice-cream prop behind his small head gasped in dramatic surprise.

"Oh, hey Gurl!" he drawled from his position on the ground, looking at Arcee. "I didn't see you there, but _dayum_! You lookin' _fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine_,"

"So fine," Pink agreed.

"We were just ah, just um-"

"-talkin' all smart-like with Adam over here," finished Pink, pointing with a large hand to the old human technician who shook his head.

"My name's not Adam," he said and started walking away from the scene, hands in his pockets. "Leave me out of this."

"No! Adam!"

"Come back, Adam!"

"Wait, Adam!"

"ADAM!" they wailed together and broke out into loud, boisterous laughter. _Well_, thought Sophie, watching them roll around on the floor, _this is unexpected_. Eventually, the pink Autobot sat up, wiping his protruding blue eyes to rid the imaginary tears of mirth.

"Aw, man. He cute"

"True dat,"

Arcee sighed and put a hand to her face, as if embarrassed by such a crude example of her species. "Guys, please."

"Don't worry, baby, you way cuter," assured Pink as he got to his feet with what seemed to be his brother. When standing, it was easy to see their almost comically round bodies with large forearms and big feet in comparison to their tiny heads. They were both about as tall as Arcee, but far more burly. Sophie moved slightly out of the way once more.

"You bet your sweet ass," added his brother while Pink switched on some music with a heavy beat, bopping his head to the rhythm and sashaying around Arcee. "Hottest chica around!"

"The only 'chica' around, Mudflap." she corrected tiredly and then smacked Pink hard on the head as he glided, making the music warble. "Turn that off, Skids."

The music cut out and Sophie looked at Arcee inquiringly. She sighed and slumped again, looking a bit forlorn. "The only femme on Earth," she told Sophie sadly.

After a general noise of agreement, Skids seemingly noticed Sophie's presence for the first time. "Lookie here!" he exclaimed, he and his brother leaning in while Sophie backed away, head hurting. "Baby, no fair, you already got a pet. We be lookin' for one for _ages_!"

Sophie stopped moving and her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Excuse me?"

"Look at it; hair like a cheeia pet,"

"I'm not a pet,"

They ignored her statement, apparently moving onto another subject. " You remember us swoopin' in and rescuing yous? After yo' beezer all broke? We do."

"We was badass," Mudflap informed them, "Ask anybody,"

"I seem to remember things differently," said Arcee dryly. She stood up straighter and smiled exultantly. "It was us who took down Scorponok."

It was the beginnings of an argument if she ever heard one, so Sophie swiftly cut in. "What was that mission you mentioned earlier?" she asked.

To her surprise, the twin's upbeat demeanors dropped instantly; Mudflap scuffing his two-toed metal foot against the ground with a screech and Skids scratching his head, just behind his mouse-looking ears. With this, Sophie suddenly noticed another striking difference between humans and transformers. Like there weren't enough already. Cybertronians, when they moved or even felt emotion, were always making some kind of sound, whether it be an electronic clicking, a low humming, or groaning of metal parts shifting as they moved. Even Arcee was doing it, though admittedly a lot more muted than the twins. Sophie found this interesting, and wondered if humans seemed quiet to them.

Arcee pulled Sophie from her reflection with her next question. "Yeah, and have they told you anything about the meeting they're having?"

"Nah," said Mudflap, looking put out. "We not 'important enough' apparently,"

Skids nodded. "Total bullshi-"

"And the mission?" interrupted Sophie before they could go on another tangent. Despite how amusing it was, their attempts at imitating gangster culture was starting to grate.

They shrugged, great shoulders heaving. "All we know is dat not everybody is here,"

"Including the Boss-man," added Skids.

"Boss?" Sophie asked.

Suddenly, the twins struck an impressive pose and their voices deepened. "_Optimus Prime_," they chorused together with Arcee, whom said the name normally while smiling slightly.

Sophie studied their blatant admiration for their leader nodded slowly. Interesting. "Right."

"'_Right_'? Pshhhh!" Mudflap scoffed. "He famous,"

"Not here," reminded Arcee.

"Ah, yeah!" said Skids, clicking his fingers as if an idea came to him. He beckoned them closer and lowered his voice. "Youall want ta' know 'bout da' meetin' right?" They nodded. "Well, it just so happens that yours truly knows how to ge' in there all stealthy and shit."

Sophie arched an eyebrow. "You mean sneak in?"

"Yeah,"

"Without anybody noticing?" Arcee confirmed.

"Yo' know it,"

Arcee and Sophie looked at each other, and then back at Skids and his twin, whom were jiggling excitedly.

"So," said Skids, his strange, alien features arranged in a way that suggested a mischievous smile. "You in?"

* * *

The meeting was taking place in the second Hangar, adjacent to the one they were just in. Sophie remembered that the massive sliding door on the hangar had been closed when she and Arcee had entered the courtyard, presumably locked. Therefore, the only way in there was through the building that connected the two hangars together. This was according to Skids.

Sophie watched the colorful group of Autobots as they slouched along the large but human-sized corridors, having to bend to fit. Before, she had her suspicions on how they would ever be able to pass, but seeing them now as they slipped around tight corners and ninja rolled along the straight stretches of red carpet, bickering all the while, she realized that the Twins must have done this quite a few times. Arcee was having the least success, continually bumping her head on the ceiling and having to bend awkwardly low on her single appendage as they ascended a set of stairs. "I hate this," she muttered and glared at Sophie behind her as she followed the group comfortably.

Sophie smiled, but it felt strained. She could feel sweat trickling down her back and her hands were clammy. She focused on the office doors they passed and the occasional photo frame, which she picked up off the floor and put back on its hinges from it being hit by Arcee. Never before in her life have she had this constant tension around her head, squeezing like a band until it hurt. Usually it would just come in waves; a headache or migraine in the morning which would eventually fade away in the afternoon, or the other way round. This had gotten progressively worse since she first met Arcee, and then increased dramatically at her arrival at Diego Garcia.

Curiously enough, this suggested that being around the Cybertronians was making shit worse. This was as unfortunate as it was puzzling, but it didn't change a thing. If anything, it further implied that the island was the right place for some answers and a definite solution to her problem.

"Soph!" hissed Arcee and Sophie's head snapped up.

"Huh?"

They all shushed her and Sophie blinked. She was standing on a high platform overlooking the entirety of what must be the second hangar. Unlike the first, the space was open and clear of other platforms, excluding the one lining the edges, which was what she was standing on, and the one in the rough centre of the room. It was huge, about 30 feet in height, and shaped like a square with one end cut off and staircases leading up either side. It held several desks, computers, and one large screen which appeared to be the only source of light in the dark room.

Sophie's breath caught in her throat as she spotted a _huge _transformer standing in the glow of the screen. Arcee yanked her down before she could be seen, nearly tripping Sophie on the mass of tangled, thick wires coating where they hid. The platform creaked ominously with their sudden movement and the three bots seemed to hold their breath, staying the most quiet as Sophie had ever seen.

The noise ceased, and when it was clear that no one had been alerted to their presence, they all sagged with relief. Sophie sat crouched next to Arcee whom was laying on her stomach beside her, peering through the railings that kept them hidden and becoming instantly absorbed in the meeting. Sophie glanced over her plated back to see the twins struggling with each other to get the better spot; right next to Arcee. Sophie's eyes widened when she spotted the bright yellow CAUTION tape hanging from around Skid's neck like jewelry.

Her head whipped around and she immediately found where the tape had been torn from the entrance they had stumbled through. The tape continued to wrap around the flimsy barrier that kept workers from falling off.

"Hey! _Hey_!" Sophie urgently whispered, but they weren't listening as they scuffled, making the platform groan again. She pulled a twig out of her hair and threw it at them, miraculously hitting Mudflap in the eye. He looked at her indignantly and she jabbed a finger at the metal mesh that was holding them all up. "Is this going to hold?"

He waved a white hand at her unperturbedly while his brother pushed his ice-cream down so he could see. "Yeah, it's cool. Just as long yo' don't make any sudden moves."

Sophie stared at him incredulously, but all of the Autobot's attention was suddenly on the meeting. She sighed and squinted through the fence as well, watching the meeting along with the others.

There was what seemed to be a damaged audio file playing on the large screen; badly distorted and warbling drastically. "Lennox to command-" _pshhhq_ "- do you read me-" _shhtiksh_ "-hello? Do you-" _shhhh-_

A soldier with broad shoulders and dark skin switched off the recording from his place next to the screen. "That was our most recent attempt at re-establishing the communication network with our field team," he informed the hulking black Autobot before him.

"Still shit then?" he replied bluntly, his deep gravelly voice quipped slightly with an accent Sophie couldn't name. He was far taller than Arcee and the twins; 26 feet at least. His chest was wide and strong, but immediately flowed into his thick, tree trunk legs, making them appear longer with the absence of a torso. When he shifted, Sophie could see his strangely flexible feet, lined with many uneven toes.

The soldier sighed and leaned back on a desk, crossing his arms. "Still shit," he confirmed, "Any progress on your end?"

"Not at all, I'm afraid." smartly said a completely different voice. The big one moved his bulk to reveal a smaller, elderly looking Autobot. "Which is very disturbing, indeed! The only ones that could possibly have the technology to sabotage our communicators are-"

"Decepticons," growled the other one. The flat, nose-like feature on his face scrunched up with displeasure.

Sophie glanced at Arcee and nudged her armored shoulder. Arcee looked at her with slight surprise and spotted the unspoken question in her eyes. "Ironhide," she stated, her voice quiet but no less clear as she pointed the two transformers out for her. "My old trainer. And Wheeljack; crazy scientist."

Sophie had a feeling that the short explanation was somewhat biased, but let it go without a comment as the human soldier sighed once more and ran a hand over his bald head. "I'm really not cut out for this," he stated, looking annoyed, "It should Lennox here, doing briefings, and me out there, shooting things."

"I know exactly what you mean," said Ironhide darkly, a hint of rebellion creeping into his posture.

Before the artillery with legs and the trigger-happy human could conduct an impromptu mutiny, the blue Wheeljack cut in frantically. "Lads! Come on now, we still need to discuss the mission, don't we?"

Everybody perked up, but Ironhide remained stubbornly uninterested. "What about the mission?" he scoffed, already moving away with his large joints creaking in their Cybertronian style. "We can't hear anything about it thanks to the damn network. Besides, what would they say? The Arcee sisters have already been located and-"

"_What!?_" Arcee shrieked suddenly, making Sophie and Twins jump in shock. Before anybody could stop her, Arcee leapt from her cramped position and was about to either hurl insults or jump over the railing when the platform gave a deafening _creeeeeeeak _and the thin mesh broke through. Right between Sophie and Arcee.

Arcee lost her balance and slammed onto her side, causing the walkway let out another long scream. She swiftly slid down the dangerously declined slope; her clawing hands making the angle even steeper before falling through the wide gap. Sophie glimpsed Arcee being caught in a length of wire, tangling around her wheel, before Sophie's own side of the platform dipped deeply. She made a grab for the railing, but it was rusted through and she yelped as broke in her hands and suddenly she was falling too.

She heard the twins start to call her name, then realized that they didn't know it and trailed off awkwardly into "Cheeia pet..." and "Fuzzmuzz..."

_Funny, the things you notice in these kind of situations, _Sophie thought distractedly while the rest of her brain sat in shocked silence as the shiny, hard ground rapidly rushed up to meet her. Just before her imminent death, something hooked her foot and she cried out when her still-in-motion body weight nearly snapped her spine as she came to an abrupt halt in the air.

She swung wildly for a moment and heard a couple more panicked yells before a whole lot of clanging and clashing as something hit the ground near her. Sophie swerved in the air and spotted Skids and Mudflap in a groaning pile next to her; Mudflap's ice-cream light flickering on in the semi-darkness. She then craned her neck upwards to see Arcee's three digit hand clutching Sophie's boot. Arcee herself was hanging above Sophie from the wire that was wrapped tightly around her wheel. Her bright blue optics glanced down at her and she murmured "Sorry..."

Silence rang out through the hangar and Sophie couldn't even begin to imagine how stupid the entire scene must of looked. Sophie sighed; this was not how she wanted to announce her presence, to say the least.


	13. Progress

Chapter 13 Progress

* * *

Author's Note:

_I was reading through the comments of the previous chapter when Slink T. Ferret pointed out that that Wheeljack wasn't on Earth until after Revenge of the Fallen._

_At first I was like O.O_

_Then I was like "DAMN IT!"_

_I nearly cried, but Wheeljack's such a cool character that I'm going to keep him there anyway lol._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

Sophie watched, expressionless and trying to blend into the background, as the small and petite Arcee confronted the enormous black armored mass of intimidation that was Ironhide. She felt slightly cheated; Sophie had been led to believe that most Cybertronians were of Arcee's statue, which was now proved blatantly false.

When she was sure nobody was looking, Sophie took a slight step away from the scene.

Mere moments before, Ironhide had cut the pair down from their predicament; snapping the wire effortlessly with a twitch of his fist and sending them crashing to the floor to join Skids and Mudflap in their pile. Sophie had narrowly missed being flattened by Arcee, but her alien friend was up in an instant, launching herself at the much larger robot in anger.

"Why didn't you tell me?" shouted Arcee now, looking furiously up at Ironhide with burning eyes. The Twins had taken advantage of the distraction and snuck out a while ago; the large sliding doors of the Hangar unlocked and opened, thanks to the considerate Wheeljack whom anxiously stood by in case things got serious. Sophie planned on following them into the yellow light of the afternoon, but with the ever present human soldier by her side, it complicated things a tad. Thankfully, he seemed to be focused on Arcee and Ironhide more than herself; his military trained mind presumably concentrated on the more dangerous situation at hand.

Sophie side-stepped discreetly once more, bringing her minutely closer to freedom.

"Because it was unnecessary," snapped Ironhide in his peculiarly accented voice. He stood over Arcee by a mile, and Arcee knew it too; standing as tall as she could on her wheel. "Stand down!" he ordered.

Arcee ignored this, apparently having absolutely no intention of backing off. "You told me that they weren't on earth!"

"That-"

"Are they going to be attacked?" asked Arcee, skipping haphazardly ahead, a hint of panic on the edges of her mature voice. It made her seem younger, her being worried.

Ironhide gave a rumbling sigh. It was a _'why me?'_ sort of sigh. "Where do think Prime and the others are?" he said wearily. Sophie took another step, but was now listening closely.

Relief broke over Arcee's slanted features. "They've gone to pick them up?" she asked, and he nodded. Arcee considered this, and an her voice became tinged with annoyance. "And why, can't I go and help them?"

Sophie tuned them out and took another step. She was so close to the threshold now and would be able to disappear easily amongst the NEST soldiers walking back to the Barracks. Even so, her mind lingered on what Ironhide revealed, which was probably her mistake.

A strong hand clamped around her upper arm and her stomach twisted uneasily. Sophie whipped around and tried to wrench her arm away, but then stopped in surprise.

A tall girl with Hispanic features dressed in a NEST uniform and black combat boots glared at her with dark, black eyes. She was about as tall as Sophie, but was far more curvy and shapely than her own sturdy frame. The girl was beautiful with her warm colored skin and large almond eyes, but the hand on Sophie's arm was cold and something about her made Sophie's belly churn like a hook tugged at it. Her head throbbed.

The dark-skinned soldier moved to the unknown women's side. "Nice try," he told Sophie, gloating slightly. "Miss...?"

She attempted to extract herself from the girl's iron grasp. No use. Sophie sighed dejectedly. "Sophie," she answered glumly. "Who are you?"

"Senior Master Sergeant Epps." he introduced formally with a small hint of pride. He then frowned at her. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Sophie stared at him blankly, silently willing her brilliantly intelligent brain to create a believable excuse. A moment dragged by, and avoiding the subject, she turned on the Hispanic girl. "And what is your name?"

The girl smirked, and Sophie thought she looked incredibly young for a soldier. A girl's face on a women's body."Alice," she answered simply, and her smooth Latino voice sounded just like Sophie thought it would. Cold. Alice's full lips smiled at her. "And I'm here to take you in."

Then she unhooked a pair of cuffs from her belt which Sophie didn't notice before and held them up, the metal clinking innocently while Alice smiled demurely below her icy black eyes. Sophie tried to keep her alarm from her voice. "Oh,"

Something in Alice's predatory look told her of her miserable failure. This was not good.

Sophie cleared her throat, grabbing for an excuse. She glanced over their heads at Arcee, but she was still arguing with Ironhide. "Where is Daniel?" she asked, aiming for neutral ground.

Her hopes were dashed when Alice's complacent expression twisted into an angry scowl. "That's _Private Rogers_, to you," she spat, hate pouring out of her eyes. Sophie resisted the urge to take a step back. "And thanks to you, he's in quite a lot of trouble right now."

Sophie felt a twinge of guilt and was thankful when Sergeant Epps interrupted. "More importantly," he said, "I _still_ don't know what you're doing here. And if you can't think of anything quick, I'm gonna have to let Alice-"

"I know! I have thought of something," she blurted eloquently and he gave her a strange look, which she ignored. Sophie cleared her throat. "I understand Cybertronian, I know about NEST, and Arcee over there used to be my motorcycle."

Sophie had anticipated a stunned silence, but the Sergeant merely frowned and looked over his broad shoulder at the alien in question. "She was your bike?"

"Yes,"

"Did you know what she was?"

Sophie hesitated. "No," she answered, not wanting to divulge any more than necessary. "Not at first,"

To her surprise, Epps just snorted as if saying _typical_. "Hope this isn't becoming a trend," he muttered and Sophie frowned slightly, not understanding his reference. He looked back at her doubtfully. "And you can understand their language?"

Sophie nodded, and suppressed a wince as the band tightened around her head. Sophie hadn't wanted to reveal this particular piece of information since of how unsure she was on NEST's reaction to the depth of her knowledge, but she needed something to snag their interest.

"Prove it," he said.

Sophie sighed and rubbed her nose, grimacing when it hurt, before attempting to catch Arcee's eye. "Arcee!"

She had still been arguing with Ironhide, but spun around when she heard her name. "What?" Arcee snapped, looking pissed.

"Say something in Cybertronian,"

Arcee didn't pause. "_Ironhide is a bit-brain little burnout which I have had the misfortune of ever knowing_!" she clicked and shrilled heatedly before skating out of the Hangar with a huff. Ironhide scowled and groaned at the same time, rolling his head back as a low hum sounded before his form distorted. His transformation was short and efficient, compacting his bulky limbs and folding quickly into what looked like a GMC Topkick and drove out of the building.

Sophie stared after them while everybody else looked at her expectantly. Her lips pursed unhappily before she cleared her throat and reluctantly repeated what Arcee had said. The Sergeant blinked and then smirked whilst Alice remained her usual threatening self. Epps's brown eyes moved upwards from Sophie to look at something above her. "So?" he questioned.

"She is correct," answered a surprised voice and Sophie twisted around, flinched, and stepped back. Wheeljack stood right behind her. He studied her curiously, and Sophie noted with some amusement the light blue 'hair' on either side of his metallic skull and glasses perched near his eyes. His plating was a dark blue with various tools or wires wrapped around his frame or sticking from his back. He seemed excited; feet shuffling and hands twitching as he talked. "We really should run some tests and-"

"Sorry Wheeljack," interrupted Epps, "Security first, curiosity later."

As Wheeljack deflated, the Sergeant cringed, and Sophie got the feeling that Epps really hated being the responsible one.

She sighed and closed her eyes for an instant, putting her thoughts back in order and rebuilding her unshakable facade as she attempted to regain some control over her situation. "Director Galloway knows about my circumstance, so you should speak to him," she suggested, opening her eyes and then glancing at Alice, whom glared back. "Or her, she seems to know a bit."

"'Under full observation,'" Alice quoted, "'Constant supervision,'"

Sophie winced internally. That didn't sit well with her, but at least she wasn't under house arrest."See? She knows what she's talking about."

Epps considered her. Sophie looked back at him, adopting a calm and serene expression despite the sweat dripping down her back and that tightening, squeezing band around her forehead. He sighed and rubbed a hand over his head. "Right," he said and turned to Alice, "Take her back to the Barracks for now. I guess I'll be hearing from Galloway pretty soon." He didn't look enthused by the fact.

Alice's eyes narrowed unappreciatively, but she returned the cuffs to her belt and seized Sophie by her arm again, dragging her out of the Hangar and into the cool afternoon. Sophie twisted around to look at the Sergeant and the old Autobot. "Thank you," she called out before Alice pushed her into a jeep, feeling a sense of gratitude for their decision. Of course, this in no way guaranteed anything, but it was a step.

Wheeljack waved them off as Alice drove them away from the courtyard. Sophie smiled slightly at the gesture, leaning back into her seat and looking at the dark road ahead.

Sophie felt strange; her limbs were heavy, her nose was sore, and her eyes kept slipping closed like she wanted to sleep. Despite her apparent fatigue, her mind hummed like a hive full of annoying bees. She hardly paid attention to the road in front of them as something deep inside of her unclenched as they moved further and further away from the Hangars.

An undetermined time later, the rolled to a stop outside one of the rectangular green buildings. Sophie hadn't registered Alice leaving the jeep, but a second later she felt herself being grabbed and yanked from the car. However, as soon as she was moved, intense nausea suddenly swathed through her and Sophie clamped a hand over her mouth in shock. Just as she stumbled to the nearest patch of grass, acidic bile rose in her throat and she retched violently. All of the meager contents of her stomach emptied onto the grass.

Sophie coughed and gagged and caught Alice gazing at her with a faintly disgusted look on her face. Sophie spat the remaining gunk from her mouth, her teeth feeling gross and fuzzy, and rubbed a hand over her face. She sighed and slumped, allowing Alice to recapture her arm and haul her through the fly screen door of the green building.

"You sick or something?" Alice asked her through gritted teeth, her beautiful lips curling with revulsion.

Somehow, Sophie didn't think it was a expression of concern. "No," she rasped and Alice led her down the rows of crisp beds lining either side of the long white bricked room.

Other women were already ambling around the dorm; either packing their belongings neatly away in the lockers in front of their cots, reading, or talking casually to each other. Some spared her curious or disapproving glances, but ultimately continued to chat amongst themselves.

They arrived at two empty cots, roughly in the centre of the row and furthest away from the doors situated on the sides of the building. Sophie stared blankly at the black back-pack sitting on the thin pillow of one of the beds. Beside it was her recognizably filthy jeans and leather jacket. She touched the rough fabric and frowned. "My bag...?"

Alice glanced at it distastefully before plunking down on her cot. "Daniel," she quipped as an explanation, kicking off her boots and crossing her arms behind her head.

A surprise and another tug of guilt; Sophie was expecting never to see her belongings again and Gentle Daniel seemed to have a heart of gold. Or pity.

Sighing, she sat down on the squeaky mattress with her back facing Alice. Sophie stared at a nook in the dark timber floor while she thought. She wondered how much trouble the young Private was in for letting her out of his sight and if the rusty springs on her mattress was going to be an issue when she decides to sneak out. Sophie was first going to have to ask to be shown around the Med Bay, but requesting to see that location specifically would appear suspicious, therefore a tour around the entire airport would be more adequate. Problem was, who would be willing to take time out of their busy and important schedule to escort a runaway girl around the base? Nobody. Well, perhaps Daniel. But Sophie was willing to bet he was going to be a lot more wary of her than before.

Her head throbbed and Sophie rubbed it, finding another blade of grass in the depths of her hair. Flicking the strand away, she looked straight up into a pair of large hazel eyes.

They quickly ducked behind the worn Twilight paperback the women was reading on the bed next to Sophie's. A moment later, they popped back up to stare at her again, but hastily vanished when she realized Sophie was still watching her. Sophie quirked an eyebrow as the women's creamy forehead reddened above her book.

Shrugging slightly, Sophie turned to her backpack and began to ruffle through its contents while pretending to not notice the unknown women peeking at her again. With a rush of relief, Sophie snatched one of the little white boxes of aspirin from the depths of her bag and fumbled shakily as she tore it opened. After swallowing a few, she reviewed the rest of her belongings; her stash of money, her extra pair of cloths and the remnants of her sleeping pills. Her blueprints, disassembled parts and her other pulse grenades had been expectedly confiscated for study. Sophie couldn't help the childish sense of unfairness stirring within her at the image of NEST engineers and scientists pulling apart her work and dissecting her inventions and ideas.

Sophie smirked when she remembered. Not like they could read them anyway.

"Is she okay?" whispered a hushed voice.

Sophie looked back up at the Twilight-reading woman, but she was looking across Sophie's bed at Alice.

Alice didn't open her eyes. "Car sick," she answered bluntly, and then rolled unto her side, effectively ignoring them both.

Sophie suddenly wondered what she looked like, but before she had the chance to ask, somebody called out from the end of the dorm, "Alright, ladies. Lights out."

The fluorescent lights switched off, bathing them in darkness. There was a few grumbles and complaints and a single curse as someone bumped into a locker on the way to their bed. Before the silence settled, Alice spoke to Sophie.

"I should probably warn you," she told her sardonically, "To not bother trying to sneak out. You're on an island filled with security cameras and a whole assortment of deadly things that know how to kill you; there is no way out."

Sophie snorted softly. Like she needed reminding. "Thanks," she replied with an equal amount of sarcasm, sitting up alone in the dark.

This should be fun.


	14. Friendly Frustration

Chapter 14 Friendly Frustration

click

_zzzzzzzzzzap_

_BAM_

"Slaggin' idiot..."

click

_zzzzzzzzzap_

_BAM_

"Outdated pile of scrap..."

click

"They're my own sisters!"

zzzzzzzzzzap

_BAM_

"But nooo," Arcee grinded as she let her pulse rifle reset with a faint click. She eyed the demolished cardboard target with distaste as whirred along the long rail about half a football field away. At the end of the rail, it swished away, going back underground and being replaced instantly with a identical cardboard cutout. "Apparently Ironhide is so old now that he can't comprehend the notion of _sisterly love and concern_!"

"I very much doubt he would," murmured Sophie, sitting on top of a small grassy slope behind Arcee. She fiddled with a screen-like machine, her face creasing in concentration. "Unless he himself is a sister..."

Arcee's weapon recharged with a long zzzzzzzap, before she let it loose.

_Swish _

"Screw you!" Arcee shouted at the intact target, fuming and eyes flashing.

A little ways behind them was the two Hangars, which appeared to be the Autobot's favorite haunt. The shooting range near it was cleverly constructed; safely out of the way of the daily routines of the base and only a few trees and the ocean in front of them if somebody happened to miss.

Sophie slowly tweaked a dial on her thin machine, watching the static warble over the screen closely and searching for any sign of an image. It was her third day on the tropical paradise of Diego Garcia and she had already managed to accomplish quite a few things. On her second day, Sophie had woken up earlier than any of the other soldiers and was the politest and most mild person you've ever seen, aiming to lull them into a sense of security about her person. However, Alice turned out to be a permanent thorn in her side and had further refused to show her around the Base. Fortunately, Private Daniel caught them as they left the cafeteria and offered her a tour despite Sophie getting him into trouble (less food rations, more laps around the base and a warning finger wagging by dear Director Galloway, threatening to divest him of his rank. Sophie thought it was a bit much). Alice grumbled at this, shooting Sophie dirty looks while she beamed at Daniel as he led the way to show her the Medical Bay.

The Med Bay was suitable for her needs, yet lacking the information she wanted. Sophie had not been discouraged; she hadn't been able to investigate effectively with two military vultures hovering vigilantly over her shoulder.

_Scratch that_, Sophie corrected while she quickly scanned behind her, checking for Alice before returning her attention to the screen and hearing Arcee blow her next target to smithereens. _One vulture and one soft hearted teddy bear. _

That morning, however, Sophie had already gotten tired of being the harmless idiot and decided to ditch Alice by going to the rest-room and never returning. Alice seemed to have this weird phobia about bodily functions, such as going to the toilet and throwing up, so she refused to go inside with her. Sophie found this beneficial, sneaking through the window and sprinting to the courtyard, inconspicuous in her borrowed khaki fatigues and her own old work-boots. She met up with the frustrated Arcee, pilfered a handheld monitor from Wheeljack's workshop and headed out to the shooting range. Arcee needed to blow off some steam.

click

_zzzzzzzzzzap_

_Swish_

Arcee's back plates were terse and she looked like she wanted to throw the rifle to the ground. Instead, she rested the tip of the weapon on the grass and leaned on it, blowing out a long vent of air.

"Elita-One would know what to do..." she trailed off, staring at the unharmed target.

Sophie's heart leapt as an image flickered briefly on her screen, but it was gone as soon as it came. Disappointed, she paused her search and glanced up at the back of Arcee's head. "She is the oldest, right?"

Arcee nodded, an affectionate smirk in her voice. "And Chromia's the baby."

"Are they as small as you are?"

She whisked around, blue eyes narrowing and looking extremely irritated. "Excuse me?"

Sophie blinked. "Ah. Um. Nevermind," she quickly amended as Arcee rolled closer, still looking contemptuously down at Sophie even from her place at the bottom of the slope.

Sophie's head resonated with familiar pain at the Cybertronian's closeness. There was, of course, no way that Arcee could've been aware of this effect, therefore her simple action was certainly not an implication of cruelty. Just intimidation. Attempted intimidation.

"You think I'm small?" Arcee hummed low and dangerous.

"No, of course not," Sophie said firmly. She cleared her throat. "Actually, I was wondering why Ironhide-" (Arcee scowled) "- referred to all of you as the 'Arcee sisters'."

To be completely honest, Sophie hadn't dwelt on it _that_ much, considering the million other things she had to think about. However, it seemed an appropriate question for sidetracking Arcee, as Sophie really did not feel like bearing the weight of her wrath that day.

And so it was. Arcee frowned at her. "How can you remember this stuff?" she asked with a tone of resigned incredulity. "It was, what, mentioned once? Three days ago?"

Sophie shrugged.

"...Well," said Arcee, hesitating. "We don't really have last names like you humans do. So..."

"But why are your sisters grouped under your name?" Sophie prompted, "Shouldn't it have been the oldest instead?"

This seemed to stump the alien for a moment. "It- It's ah, we have... a _bond_? No that's not... It's, um...different," she finished lamely. "It's different for us...yeah. Complicated."

Sophie watched her, feeling the skepticism on her face.

Arcee hunched her shoulders defensively. "Hey! Don't look at me like that. It's really hard to explain, especially to a human."

"Fine, fine," Sophie said mildly, returning most of her attention to the monitor while she turned the dial. "And anyway, don't you think it's a little weird that they send the entire platoon to go pick them up?"

"Why shouldn't they?" asked Arcee, swiveling back around to reconsider her cardboard opponent once more. Thankfully, she sounded relatively more calm than before. "I was attacked, wasn't I?"

Sophie shook her head, frowning. "But that's what's so weird about it. You'd think your Autobot friends would have a method of predicting when and where new arrivals will be so they don't get hurt-"

**BOOM**

The earth beneath them shook and Sophie jumped, surprised by the colossal noise. That certainly wasn't Arcee.

Sophie twisted around to look at the two aircraft hangars where she could hear a slow hiss. A worrying amount of smoke drifted up into the sky and an instant later a shrilly alarm sounded, echoing across the stretch of grass.

Sophie stood and turned to Arcee, but she had already transformed and a 2006 Buell firebolt rolled up beside her, tucking one last component underneath her scarlet casing. "Come on," she said grimly, and Sophie sat on her leather seat.

She gripped the handlebars for support, but let Arcee do the driving despite her uneasiness of not being in control of the vehicle she was on. They had silently come to the agreement to take turns driving, hopefully avoiding future arguments about the issue, but Sophie doubted it.

Arcee sped over the slope and across the flat expanse of grass, swerving around the closed end of the building to the open entrance facing the rest of the concrete courtyard. The choking taint of smoke and fumes increased as they drew closer, causing Sophie to scrunch up her healing nose in disgust.

Clouds of dark vapor wafted from the Hanger and Sophie leaned one leg against the ground as Arcee stopped before the threshold, peering inside. Numerous suit-wearing NEST employees poured from the offices in the middle, scurrying from the building with their hands clamped over their faces to ward off the stench. The alarm was loud, jabbing into Sophie's mind painfully.

The smoke clung to the high ceiling, leaving Sophie to spot the vague impression of the large body stumbling around in the mist, arms flapping in a futile attempt to clear the fog.

"What is going..." Sophie started, but stopped in surprise as an electric green car and a maroon orange one zoomed from the Hangar and sped past them, orientating between bursts of laughter and vociferous coughing. They were gone before Sophie could determine their model.

She stared after them and felt Arcee rumble a sigh beneath her.

"Okay. Off." she ordered and Sophie slipped from her seat.

Arcee whirred as she flexed into her humanoid form before rolling into the Hangar, nearly disappearing into the gloom. Sophie followed her with caution, carefully breathing through her mouth and resisting the urge to cough as the smoke tickled her throat.

"Wheeljack!" she heard Arcee call over the alarm. "What is going - _ah_!" There was a clash and a curse as Arcee bumped into something, presumably one of the platforms.

"Ah! Arcee!" said Wheeljack in the delighted tone of someone popping over for a visit. Sophie saw him pause through the vapor. "Just a minute, lass, and I'll get this cleaned up,"

He resumed his flapping. Arcee sighed, a tinged of frustration in her voice. "Just get the smoke out of here Wheeljack-" Another bang sounded along with the patter of human feet, and Arcee shouted over the squealing alarm with growing impatience. "-_and will somebody turn that slaggin' thing off_!?"

Sophie spotted a promising panel to the right of the entrance and jogged over to it, mindful of any obstructions in front of her. Studying it for a moment, she switched the alarm off, and as it warbled out she flicked a button labeled VENTILATION. An instant later, grates on the roof peeled back to reveal barred shafts and a hum sounded as the smoke was vented through them and out of the Hangar.

Slowly the gloom cleared, revealing a scorched floor and several dazed technicians along with Arcee and Wheeljack. The old blue Autobot was covered with black smudges and his wavy blue hair was frizzed and chaotic on either side of his skull. He swayed slightly as he returned to his bench.

"Crazy scientist..." Arcee muttered and coughed. "And why is this even effecting _us_?"

"Oh!" said Wheeljack, as if surprised by her interest. "I was just developing a little something of a smoke grenade, I suppose you could say, that would impair the Decepticons,"

Arcee and Sophie moved over to his cubicle where he was fiddling with some sort of chamber. His workshop was divided from the rest of the hangar by three platforms which served as benches. They were about as high as Sophie was tall, but like all the platforms, a set of foldable stairs was attach to each one. Sophie stepped up these and onto the bench, carefully avoiding the unorganized clutter scattered on them while Arcee shooed away the little squad of human soldiers that had assembled in response to the alarm.

"Yes, it's fine now. You don't need to worry, this is pretty normal. Go." she said, making little waving motions with her hands, as if getting rid of a group of overcurious children. Sophie frowned at her disapprovingly and Arcee shrugged. "What?"

Sighing, Sophie turned back to Wheeljack, whom was leaning over the opposite bench with his back to her. She slowly picked her way over to him. "You know, testing the grenade in a closed environment first would have been a lot more... safe,"

"Considerate too," Arcee added, standing next to Wheeljack and peering at what he was working on.

"I know, I know, I did!" He said, gesturing to the glass chamber in front of him. The glass was thick and strong, but one of the yellow seals on the side had been noticeably loosened. Sophie stood near it and saw that it was where the scorch marks were the most concentrated. Wheeljack rested a hand on his head, sweeping it through his light blue hair with a hint of frustration. An unexpectedly human gesture. "I don't understand how this happened! It was fine when I last checked it."

"Were Skids and Mudflap helping you out?" Arcee asked immediately.

"Yes, but I-"

"Then there you go," Arcee interrupted, satisfied.

Sophie tuned out as Wheeljack began asking why on earth the twins would want to disturb his experiment and what happened to the weapon Arcee was practicing with (it was presumably still out on the shooting range), as she examined the other objects resting innocently on the benches. Sophie had only been on the base for three days but she had already begun to love Wheeljack's workshop. It reminded her a lot of The Work's back home. The benches were always filled with a any number of things; large tools, weird experiments, interesting designs, and remarkable blueprints which Wheeljack knew that she could understand but didn't bother to put away.

A contraption made of silky smooth metal grabbed her interest and Sophie bent down to pick it up. Suddenly, her headache spiked and a jolt of blue flew from her hand to the metal with a sharp _crack._

"Ow!" Sophie yelped, flinching away.

"_OW_!" The two Autobots chorused as the flash of blue arched over from the machine and zapped them as fast as lightening.

Sophie backed away quickly, nearly tripping on another machine behind her while Arcee and Wheeljack touched their sore locations in surprise.

"I'm sorry!" Sophie apologized rapidly, "I'm sorry! I was just looking around."

Wheeljack winced and rubbed where a ribcage would have been underneath that blue plating, but he didn't look at all offended. "It's alright, lass," he said, "I've got things in here that even _I_ don't know what they do,"

"That's reassuring," muttered Arcee, patting her red head and checking for injuries. Then she turned to Sophie, looking her over. "You okay?"

Not really. Sophie clasped her hands behind her back to hide her shaking and tried to keep her shoulders from shuddering. In that instant when the blue energy touched both Arcee and Wheeljack, Sophie had felt some sort of..._connection_. It was like a part of her was inside them, and that she could take that part away from them at any time. It felt wrong, and disturbingly unnatural. Even now, as the band around her head contracted, she could feel her skin crawling from the sensation, like filing against the grain of a piece of wood.

"Yes," she lied and then plastered a sheepish smile on her face. "Sorry,"

* * *

It was night, and Sophie was laying on top of the standard navy colored covers of her bed, listening to the hazel-eyed-twilight-reading-woman snoring loudly to her right and the deathly silent Alice to her left. She had changed down into her freshly washed white singlet and her short pants from Dululu. She had her hands clasped over her stomach as she pretended to sleep, hearing the faint swishing of the fans overhead and ignoring the uncomfortable hardness of her handheld monitor resting beneath the small part of her back.

Another hour later, Sophie slowly sat up and let her bare toes quietly touch the timber floor. She carefully leaned her weight onto her feet and picked up her monitor as she stood up. Avoiding the squeaky parts of the ground, Sophie cautiously made her way to the door. Opening the fly screen entrance just enough for her to fit, she slipped outside.


	15. Sneaky Business

Chapter 15 Sneaky Business

* * *

Author's Note

_Lame name for a pretty serious chapter, I know, but I needed something a little light-hearted._

_Also, if anyone is a doctor of some sort, I'm sorry if there is anything wildly inaccurate here lol._

_:)_

* * *

The night air was warm as Sophie crouched in the darkness, her back leaning against the outside of her dorm and waiting silently, listening to the crickets and bugs chirp and the unbroken quiet radiating from inside the building. She distantly noted how her head hurt; a small, constricted pain nestled deep in the left side of her brain. It was almost the norm now.

When Sophie was satisfied that no one had noticed her absence, she turned her attention to the monitor. She flicked the power on and the screen glowed brightly in shadows. Her calloused fingers found the dial and turned it about a quarter of the way round until an image became recognizable through the static. She carefully adjusted the dial so that image feed became crisper and more focused, and before long she was watching the live video feed from the unavoidable security camera located on the edge of her dorm. Sophie could see it now; it's little red light blinking mockingly at her.

This had presumably been another reason why she was elected to be situated in Barrack 17; one of the only dorms with constant security coverage. Sophie had found this mildly flattering as she recorded the footage for several minutes; NEST obviously didn't consider her to be completely harmless yet.

Which was fair enough, Sophie thought as she took the recorded video and swapped it with the live camera feed, all done through the use of her handheld monitor. You were generally allowed to be a bit paranoid when guarding government secrets.

Sophie stood and switched the screen off, bathing herself in darkness. She walked confidently past the security camera, twigs and grass crackling underneath the bare soles of her feet. Sophie navigated her way through the cluster of green buildings, cautious of any patrols or security cameras she might have missed. Soon she was out of the Barracks and jogging lightly up the long road behind the airport.

She felt too exposed in her white singlet on the open space and moved to the right side of the road, ready to throw herself into the bushes if a patrol happened by or, worse, a transformer rolled through. Sophie was quite content with her limited exposure to Ironhide's attention. She quickened her pace, feet hurting from the coral gravel.

Now, Sophie was strong enough from her time at The Works; hammering, lifting heavy materials (or trying to) and refitting a whole number of clunky items to pieces of machinery. As a result, her broad shoulders became even more defined through the years of strain and her arms taunt with muscle. Cardio, however, really wasn't her thing. So it wasn't all that shocking to find that her breath was shortening and her calf muscles were starting to burn as she ran down the road.

Sophie mentally cursed when she spotted headlights illuminating the road in the distance and hurled herself into the thick, green growth without further ado. She clambered through the ferns as far as she dared before dropping to the ground and letting the plants consume the bright white color of her singlet and the yellow of her hair. She was panting and silently screaming at herself; she didn't know how well Cybertronians could hear, but her breathing was loud enough to draw the attention of even a human passerby.

Sophie relaxed as much as she could, leaves scratching her skin and something was definitely creeping into her hair. She could hear the engine now. Taking a deep breath, she held it and kept one eye on the road as something with numerous legs crawled through her scalp and started down her forehead.

_Calm_, she repeated over and over, a mantra as the spider inched slowly down her face, pricking her skin delicately with its little hooked feet. She clenched her teeth. _Calm._ Her lungs were already aching.

A set of large wheels rumbled past, a glimpse of a black exterior before it was out of Sophie's sight. She kept waiting, lungs bursting and listening to that powerful engine move away from her location. Her face was chiseled out of stone, expressionless as the spider moved over her lips.

The instant the noise faded into relative silence Sophie slapped herself, hard. She gasped for breath and recoiled in disgust at the same time as the spider clung determinedly to her hand. She swiped her arm out sharply, flinging the bug back into the surrounding foliage. She burst out from the bushes and proceeded to bend over, hands on her knees. There she spent a moment just letting the shudders of revulsion roll through her as she regained her breath.

Sophie didn't have a particular trepidation of bugs, but that was just... _gross_.

When she finished her little teenage freak out, she stood up, cleared her throat, and walked the rest of the way to the rough centre of the airport, sweeping her hands through her flyaway hair in search for leaves, and maybe still a little paranoid about the spider issue.

Sophie spotted the back of the medium sized white building, which stood next a large shed which Sophie could only assume was the Autobot's Med Bay. Before heading over, she knelt in the shadows and fiddled with her monitor once more. When she had completed looping the camera feed, Sophie checked her surroundings cautiously before skulking over to the human Medical Bay.

Picking the lock was simple enough; snatching the pin from depths of her hair and carefully inserting it into the padlock. It was sturdy and strong, but plain. Sophie had been slightly surprised on her second day to discover that the back door wasn't electronically sealed by a computer like the front was. Surprised, but pleased.

Not that hacking into the electronic lock would've been difficult; it was just easier to figure out someone had broken into it than with a physical lock, which she could just snap back together when she was done.

Sophie opened the door a crack, satisfied with its well oiled hinges as she peered into the dark room. The first thing that hit her was the antiseptic whiff of a typical hospital, wafting through the entrance to where she stood. Before stepping across the threshold, she dug into her short's pocket and withdrew a pair of ordinary navy socks. Pulling them on, she effectively covered her dirty feet as she moved onto the clean, old fashioned black and white tiles.

After closing the door quietly behind her, muffling the shrills and chirps of the insects, she flicked on the monitor, it's glowing light revealing what was a few feet around her. Sophie walked softly down the hallway, surrounded by whitewashed walls. It was quiet. Her hands twitched and the smell of disinfectant grew stronger as she drew closer to a door on her right. The supply cupboard.

Rather than picking the lock, she simply went out into the small foyer, rifled through the desk until she found the keys, and returned.

Pushing open the light timbered entrance with her shoulder, Sophie zeroed in on the large glass cabinet filled with a colorful cocktail of little medicine bottles resting silently on their shelves. Their containers gleamed in the glow of her screen. A smile spread across her face as she moved over to them, and caught herself before she could touch the glass with longing. _No gloves_. Sophie studied the cabinet, and then her ring of keys. _And no key_.

She sighed slightly with annoyance and jogged back to the foyer and hunted around the room. Sure enough, a little wooden plaque held a row of singular keys. Sophie unhooked the one labeled MEDICINE and was soon back in the cupboard.

Clicking the glass cabinet open, Sophie swiftly stashed a few bottles of painkillers and sleeping pills into the pockets and bands of her pants. She didn't take too many; careful to leave enough behind so that no one would notice their absence until they did a very thorough stock take. Her fingers trembled and she made herself slow down.

When that was done, Sophie pilfered a pair of rubber gloves from an open box before grabbing what she needed; three clean syringes, three needles, a tourniquet, several little puffs of cotton wool, and a band-aid. Sophie shuffled into the main research room with her arms loaded with her equipment and monitor. She moved over to a large modern styled desk with the most comfortable-looking black leather seat and dumped her spoils onto the table's clean surface. Sophie located the light switch and turned it on, not worrying about smudging the plastic through her gloves and confident in not being seen as the medium sized room contained no windows.

After flopping herself unto the chair with a sigh, Sophie got to work; awkwardly tying the corded tourniquet around her upper arm singled handedly, but tight enough to make the vein on the inside of her elbow prominent. It didn't especially matter which arm she did the injections, considering that she was ambidextrous, but decided to do the first on her left.

Sophie cleaned the area with antiseptic before ripping open the sealed packets for a syringe and needle. Jamming the two together, she pushed the remaining air from the syringe and hovered the needle over the injection site. She kept her breathing relaxed and her muscles from tensing as she slid the sharp intrusion underneath her skin and into her vein.

Sophie pulled the plunger to create the low pressure inside the syringe, and when the necessary amount of blood had been extracted, she removed the needle and fumbled for a ball of cotton wool. Mechanical. Easy. Methodical.

She repeated the process two more times until the three syringes were full. After removing the tourniquet, Sophie emptied their contents into three separate vials, labeling them RED BLOOD CELLS, WHITE BLOOD CELLS, and PLATELETS. She quickly plastered the band-aid over the sore area before moving around the research room and using the equipment she found to conduct the haematocrit test and various others.

While her red blood cell test was spinning, she sat back down. Sophie watched the clock on the wall for fifteen seconds as she took her pulse, exerting slight pressure with her index and second finger against the bone. Sophie then easily multiplied the resulting number by four and had an answer.

156 beats per minute.

The average rate for an adult is 72 beats per minute.

Now, while the acceptable range for a healthy person is 60 to 100 bpm, depending on the individual heart, Sophie felt herself tense in apprehension; something slowly sinking in her gut. Her heart rate had gotten worse from the last time she calculated it six months ago. Considerably worse.

Sophie didn't have any cardiovascular problems she was aware of, but six months ago the numbers had clearly shown she had the heart of a dedicated smoker. And it had grown _worse_ between that time and now.

Her brow furrowed, but she told herself to not be surprised. _Calm_.

Shaking her head, Sophie stood from her chair and paced with her hands clasped behind her back as she waited for the results from her other tests on her blood samples. Sophie didn't count the minutes, only reacting when she heard the gentle humming from the machines lower a pitch as they whined off.

Snatching the results, she stalked back to the leather chair without looking at them. For the next few moments she figured the calculations in her head, the measurements of the levels of the cells. Next she smeared a portion of her blood on a slide and slipped it underneath a microscope, studying the individual cells.

It was an hour before Sophie finally leaned back in her chair with a long, weary sigh, letting her arms slacken on the arm rests. She stared at nothing. Sophie had known, of course, of the number of years she had from the very first time Uncle Rob had brought her ten year old self for a medical checkup. But it had changed. Instead of years, Sophie was looking at months.

Sophie felt... she didn't know what she felt.

Empty? Like something had scooped her insides out.

Weak? Her limbs ached bone deep while that little monster in her brain chewed her out, leaving her completely helpless in the face of her situation.

Homesick? Wanting to be back in her own workshop, listening to Uncle Rob's terrible singing with the radio and the drills softly whirring and the own chinks of her meddling with frustrated customer's cars.

Afraid?

Sophie didn't realize she had been crying until she noticed the dampness of her singlet, silent tears running down her down her cheeks and off her chin. She hadn't cried in years.

So sudden that it was shocking, a surge of violent anger burned through her, so intense and consuming that it made her teeth clench and her blunt fingernails dig into the leather armrest. She felt disgusted with herself and her pathetic tears as her rage demolished the doubts eating at her.

Sophie Sparks was _not_ helpless.

Sophie Sparks was _not_ weak.

She viciously rubbed her face. The only variable that had changed was time. She was going to get through this, just like she decided years ago. Wasn't this the very reason she came here in the first place? To save herself?

_So stop being useless and do what you're good at. Figure it out._

Sophie sat in that chair for exactly fifteen minutes, glaring at the wall and feeling as the anger faded and the fire leeched from her veins. She felt strangely more empty than before, but in a good way, like she had been cleaned out. Her purpose had been renewed, and her determination was in full drive.

_I am not afraid._


	16. The More You Know

Chapter 16 The More You Know

Sophie stared into the water as a cool breeze teased locks of her straw hair from her haphazard bun. The rippling aqua surface revealed a crystal clear insight into the world underneath as she sat on the wooden pier with her legs dangling over the edge. It was a rickety old thing; patches of mould and salt crusting the edges of the splinting planks with the addition of rusty brown nails, holding the whole contraction together. She had discovered it that morning, after she had escaped the constricting clutches of Alice and began wandering around, exploring and not really feeling like talking to anybody just yet. Despite her newly revived resolution, Sophie had found that she needed a little breather after years of obsession. And as she was walking through a small forest road hidden on the edges of the Barracks, Sophie had stumbled across the pier and instantly fell in love.

She thought it was funny, you see, because no transformer was light enough to successfully navigate over its structurally weak frame.

"Sophie!" Arcee called, sounding both exasperated and annoyed from her place on the sandy shore. "Come on, let's go already!"

Sophie still wasn't entirely sure how Arcee had managed to find her, but she was perfectly content to just ignore her for now. She leaned back on her hands and closed her eyes, wanting to forget her life for a moment and simply absorb the sun's warm rays and feel the breeze against her skin. She pinched with annoyance. Unfortunately, all she could see when she closed her eyes were the deep imprints of Cybertronian ingrained on the back of her eyelids, making her migraine even more pronounce.

"That human... Epps, I think it is, doesn't want to hunt you down but I'm pretty sure Malice isn't going to take no for an option."

Sophie's lips twitched. It was _Alice_, she corrected, but Sophie rather liked Arcee's unintended nickname for her. But she stayed where she was, swinging her legs slightly through the air, big blue sky above her.

"I know you want to watch us train," Arcee tried not very convincingly. It seemed that persuasion wasn't one of her skills. "And we'll be near Wheeljack's workshop, so you can...I don't know...do what you guys do? Science?"

Sophie thought about this, tilting her head to the side. It _would _be nice to investigate that metal that made her zap the others. Sophie had been pondering on that ever since it happened...

...but Sophie was determined to take a short break, even though this type of relaxation method didn't seem to be all that effective. Her thoughts couldn't seem to settle no matter what she tried, per usual.

There was a period of silence, and Sophie could practically hear Arcee thinking. She was interested in what the transformer would come up with next, as she was half expecting Arcee to give up in a huff and roll away. Sophie had a nagging suspicion that the alien was using her as a temporary substitute for her missing sisters. Not that she minded much; she enjoyed Arcee's company.

There was a sigh, and a moan of joints as Sophie could picture her shrugging. "Whatever," she said indifferently and Sophie heard her tires start to move away. "I guess that you're going to have to miss out. The Twins are going to be there, along with Ironhide who will be waiting for his pending destruction and... well, you never know what I might say."

Sophie frowned; where was _this _going?

"Right, _Sparky_?"

Sophie's head snapped around so fast that it hurt. Arcee's arms were folded and her posture was loosely superior as she watched Sophie smugly. Sophie stared at her in disbelief.

"What-"

"Well, I better get going,"

"You-"

"Don't have to worry. I won't hurt them too much."

"How-"

"You enjoy yourself now, see you later."

Arcee waved and skated up the beach to the forest road where she transformed smoothly into her bike mode without a pause. Sophie scrambled to her feet and sprinted down the pier, wooden planks clanking dangerously beneath her bare feet and hair flying behind her.

"Wait!" she yelled, absolutely seething as Arcee's red frame began disappearing down the road. She heard the alien laughing, modulated through the radio. For someone who sounds so mature, Arcee was aggravatingly childish sometimes. Sophie hissed angrily as she pumped her legs faster. "ARCEE! _I'll kill you if you tell anyone_!"

* * *

And that was how Sophie found herself in Wheeljack's workshop. She stood on the raised platform serving as the old Autobot's desk and examined the inventions around her. Sophie often alternated between watching Arcee spar with Ironhide and chatting with Wheejack himself as he dug through a steel rack filled with scrap. Just outside of Wheeljack's open cubicle, Alice sat on a chair near a portable human-sized desk with wheels, her exotic features set in a scowl as she meticulously cleaned her guns. All eight of them. She was a bit angry with Sophie's continual disappearances, to say the least. But, as Sophie pointed out, she was always under constant 'supervision', whether it be by Arcee, Daniel or the others.

"It's in here somewhere..." Wheeljack muttered, scavenging deep into the rack and making it tilt on its frame.

Sophie looked up from a skeleton-like weapon to see Arcee skate low around Ironhide's swinging fist. Skids and Mudflap stood to the side, cheering and gasping and booing in all the right places as Arcee lunged in for a jab. They were in her favor, of course.

"Don't strain yourself, Wheeljack," said Sophie absently and looked back at him, suddenly frowning. She mouthed his name a couple of times, picturing his wild hairstyle, glasses, and dapper moustache. _It doesn't really suit him_, Sophie thought and picked up some schematics from a tall pile. The page was almost too big for her to roll out.

Wheeljack said something in response, but it was too muffled for Sophie to hear as he was currently buried with scrap rising around his head. Sheets of light-colored alloy fell to the ground as he reached for something that had fallen behind the rack. Sophie smiled wryly and returned to the schematic, her mind buzzing pleasantly with ideas and designs as she gathered inspiration from Wheeljack's old sketches. It had surprised her when she first spotted the pile of blueprints. She had thought why on earth he would put his concepts on paper when he could model them in 3D using the software installed in his mind, saving them like you would with files on a computer. But then she guessed that there wasn't a huge amount of their own technology on earth to use when he first arrived.

With so many Cybertronians about, the band around Sophie's head squeezed firmly while a more concentrated pain settled somewhere to the left. But Sophie felt content, strolling through the workshop, making mental notes on things that she could use or construct later and gathering important nuggets of information. Sophie didn't know if it was intentional or not, but she realized that Arcee had dragged her to the perfect place for a distraction; bringing her to a location humming with activity and spilling with natural stimulation. She was grateful.

Sophie turned and caught Arcee feinting towards Ironhide, getting behind his left flank before striking up with a hand, aiming for a seemingly sensitive spot underneath a black shoulder plate, near his armpit. No guns allowed in this fight. But before she could even touch him, Ironhide was moving faster than Sophie expected; elbow jabbing out and hitting Arcee sharply in the face with a clang. Skids and Mudflap cursed at him passionately as Arcee fell back, but she recovered smoothly, flipping and landing on a hand before pushing off the road to return to her crouched position. It was a strange thing to watch such large creatures move so fast and precise, especially Ironhide, and Arcee's balance was astoundingly good even with only a single leg to support her.

"Impressive, aren't they?"

Sophie turned around, startled; Wheeljack could be quiet when he wanted to. He held a familiar contraption in his hands, all smooth metal and silky sheen. He was looking over her head, staring warmly at the cluster of fighting transformers.

Sophie nodded towards where the Twins had begun trying to psyche Ironhide out. He continued to spar, unfazed by their loud music and horrific tribal dancing. "Why don't you join them?"

"Me?" He huffed a laugh, "Goodness no! I'm not much of a fighter, I'm afraid."

"That makes two of us," replied Sophie and she could hear Alice smirking in the background. Ignoring Malice, Sophie studied the metal in Wheeljack's hands. "That it?"

Wheeljack nodded, handing it to her. Sophie carefully took it, cringing slightly and expecting a sharp shock for her trouble, but it just sat heavily in her arms.

"Yes, that's it," said Wheeljack, gripping the edges of the platform. From this height, they were almost eye to eye. He scratched his head. "I must admit, I am rather curious to know what a human would use Transium for."

Sophie turned the bundle of melded metal rods over in her hands. It felt just like it looked; glossy and slightly malleable. "Why? What do you usually use it for?"

Wheeljack hummed thoughtfully. "Weapons, armor, synthesizing equipment. But mainly weapons," he explained with a distinct increase of enthusiasm underneath his formal tone, like a teacher lecturing about his favorite subject. He nodded towards the substance, "That there is a rather basic form; flexible and considerably easy to work with. If I ever made it into a weapon, it would need to set."

"Why does it make good weapons?" She tested it, trying to bend the metal with her hands and finding the truth in what he said; it was firm, yet slightly malleable. A transformer would've found it effortless to manipulate.

"Well, even if it's not set, Transium is still an extremely effective energy conduit," He informed her smartly, "And when it sets, it can certainly take a beating."

"Huh," Sophie murmured, brow creasing in thought. That explained some things. But still, the shot of energy from before didn't come from the metal; it originated from _her_. "Can it draw energy from other objects or living things?"

"Not that I am aware of."

She tried again, eliminating variables. "Do you know if this particular piece of transium contained residual energy? Like, from whatever it was before it turned into scrap?"

Wheeljack shrugged in an apologetic way and Sophie sighed, staring at the transium before putting it down. She slowly walked around it, deep in thought while Wheeljack started to fidget nervously. His restlessness progressively worsened and after a few rounds, Sophie turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

His electrified eyes flicked to outside the cubicle, to where Alice was, and then back to her. He leaned in slightly and Sophie had to stifle the urge to step away. She was starting to feel bad about even_ having_ the urge; Wheeljack was always so polite to her.

"Is this about the other day? When you...you..." he stumbled a in hushed voice, and then gestured significantly with his hands.

Sophie caught herself before she could let her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Instead, she kept her face blank as a clean slate. Wheeljack noticed more than Sophie gave him credit for.

She studied his posture and expression, but as far as she could tell, he looked earnest and more than a little curious in what she had to say. Fortunately, he also seemed to understand the delicacy of the issue. Hell, maybe he could even shed a little light on the situation. Sophie watched him for a few moments more, the Twins arguing with Ironhide in the background, before deciding.

Sighing softly, she nodded.

Wheeljack rocked back on his heels and gave a hesitant laugh of triumph and subtle concern. Sophie wondered again how much the Cybertronians had adopted from human expressions.

"Truthfully, I've been mulling over it as well," he said, and then spoke his next words with the air of someone revealing an embarrassing secret. "And, to completely honest, I might have...possibly... well, _scanned_ you."

Sophie stared at him, and he seemed to cringe.

"When?"

"When we met and after you got shocked," he answered immediately.

Sophie didn't recall feeling anything foreign or strange during those times. She studied his harmless demeanor once more and felt her eyes narrow suspiciously. "What type of scan?"

His hands came up in defense; a giant alien robot fending off the probing eyes of a human girl. "Nothing intrusive or dangerous, I swear," he assured quickly, "I didn't tell you because most humans seem to disapprove of anything so...invasive. You especially."

Sophie gave him a hard look. "That is correct."

He winced slightly. "Sorry,"

She sighed and rubbed her nose in frustration. "But you didn't answer my question," she continued, "What type of scan was it? Medical or...?"

"Oh!" he exclaimed and shook his head vigorously, hair waving. "Nothing medical, lass, definitely not; that is our dear Ratchet, the medic's profession. No, I myself have invented a scanner that is able to locate the energy signatures of any Cybertronian nearby," he stated proudly and then deflated slightly, tapping a panel on his forearm. "But it's been all out of sorts lately..."

Sophie exhaled silently in relief, tension easing from her shoulders. She would need to be more careful in the future if she still wanted to keep her little secret to herself. Sophie's justification of why she wanted this didn't make exact, factual sense, considering that the Cybertronians would probably have useful information on the issue. Despite this, Sophie still flinched at the prospect of people finding out, particularly Arcee, and she wasn't sure why. Pride maybe. Insecurity? _Ugh. _She dismissed this instantly. _No._

Pulling from her self-reflection, Sophie listened to the Twins get their asses handed to them and Arcee sniggering before looking back at Wheeljack. "So what did your scan say about me?"

Wheeljack stopped fiddling with the mechanism on his arm and faced at her with his head tilted to the side. He adopted an air of mild frustration, as though he was looking at a puzzle he couldn't solve. "You have an energy signature."

Sophie shrugged, unimpressed. "Human bodies generate electricity all the time."

"Yes, yes," he said impatiently, flapping a hand at her. "I know much about your nervous systems and all those electrical signals in your organic brains; humans barely show up on my scanner. But that's not what I am talking about. You, a human, have an _AllSpark_ signature, of all things!"

Sophie started a little when she heard the phrase, an unsettling feeling washing over her. The word stirred up a swell of images in her mind, but it was gone as soon as it came, leaving her unable to recall anything she had just seen or felt.

Sophie squinted at Wheeljack.

"Is that bad?"

Wheeljack seemed to be caught off guard by her blasé response. "Well... I... I don't know," he admitted, and looked at her a bit hopelessly. "How do you feel?"

An idea flooded her, and she grabbed a hold of it, suddenly feeling very glad that she had told Wheeljack. Sophie answered his question with a question. "Do you think it could make me sick?" she asked, her face carefully neutral.

He shrugged nervously, and Sophie picked up from his twitchy movements that he seemed to be even more agitated than before. He didn't like not having answers. "A transformer's Spark in a human's body?" He shook his head. "I don't know, this hasn't exactly happened before..."

Sophie waited for more, but Wheeljack was thinking too hard to notice. Leaving him to his musings, she turned to the solid chunk of Transium by her feet. Sophie stared at it blindly, hands on her hips and tapping her fingers against Angel's lucky leather belt as she examined her headache in detail. The usual band was wrapped around her head, like a crown, squeezing and tightening depending on how close the Cybertronians were to her vicinity. But when she focused, Sophie was able to pinpoint a particular location of tension; somewhere around the back of her left ear.

Sophie touched the spot, almost expecting to feel a lump, but there was nothing. She scolded herself for being so silly; the little monster would've been inside her skull. _If it was still there_, she added a little hopefully.

Sophie returned her attention to the transium and analyzed it with genuine curiosity. It glittered innocently back at her. Raising an arm, she hovered a hand over the bundle and tried to feel _something_.

A few moments of nothing later and Sophie lowered her hand, feeling like an idiot.

Sighing, she closed her eyes and heard Skid's panicked squealing cut out abruptly as Ironhide presumably grabbed him by the throat. Mudflap let out a squawk of protest and there was a crunch an instant later. Arcee was trying to unsuccessfully hide her satisfaction whilst Wheeljack muttered to himself behind her. There was a faint odor of oil in the humid air as Alice continued to cleanse her weapons, blissfully unaware of the fairly revolutionary conversation that had just occurred.

Sophie blocked all that out, attempting to reach inside of her in and find this 'Spark' Wheeljack said she had. Distantly, she recalled the tugging sensation that had caused her to discover Arcee in Banana's dump all those weeks ago. So much had changed since then.

She tried to replicate the feeling. Minutes dragged by. Nothing. Sophie scrunched her nose and moved onto a different method. Instead of mimicking it, Sophie searched for the source of the feeling that had pulled her so faintly. And all of sudden, it was there; a small, indescribable rustling in her chest.

Sophie wanted to rear away from the sensation at first, so alien and foreign, but she steeled herself and stood her ground. She concentrated on it, and began to feel tiny fluctuations in its frail consistency. It was like a heartbeat, pulsing delicately next to the wet, messy throbbing of her physical heart. As if aware of her scrutiny, it picked up the pace, feeling stronger by the second. Sophie was focused so completely that even her headache faded into the background, unable to hurt her in that impossible moment of single clarity.

Almost subconsciously, she thought of the transuim by her feet.

"Ah!" Wheeljack exclaimed in shock and Sophie's eyes popped open. Everything came rushing back to fill the peaceful void. The elderly Autobot was staring at the Transium. "You did it again!"

Sophie frowned and looked at the smooth metal as well. "Huh," was all she said, puzzled; it hadn't felt even remotely similar to how disturbing and violating it seemed last time. "Did it zap you?"

Wheeljack whirred, and even though she wasn't looking at him Sophie knew he shook his head.

Aware of the curious eyes on her, Sophie reached out with a hand once more. Instead of closing her eyes, she squinted at the glinting transium, determined to watch what happened. Sophie concentrated on the eager fluttering in her chest and immensely enjoyed the tunnel vision that clouded her; everything unconnected to what she wanted to do just fading into the background, leaving her focused and sharp. She willed the energy to touch the transium, and she felt it stretch outwards inside of her, pulsing as it converged with the thin layer of skin on her upper arm instead of her hand. It seeped through her skin eagerly, and with a sudden crack, a stab of energy radiated from her arm.

Through iron will, Sophie pushed past her own shock and ignored the immediate impulse to withdraw. Instead, she forced the crackling length of glowing white to linger on the transium by her feet. She could feel the texture and potential of the metal as clearly as she would by touching it with a hand. It was like an extra arm, or any other limb she could manipulate. She reveled in it.

As intriguing as it was, it quickly dawned on Sophie the strain this activity put on her body. The quivering slither of energy in her chest that was penetrating her skin had expanded to a considerably larger size than its original form, and it was taking its toll. Her head was splitting and she noticed her hand shaking before her vision was partly obstructed by lines of wriggling Cybertonian text.

Before letting go like a sensible person, Sophie felt the need to test her limits before her 'spark' stuttered out. She hastily willed her newly acquired limb to grasp the metal. With a lurch of vertigo, Sophie experienced an almost magnetic pull, drawing the transium to her with unexpected force. With her eyes, she glimpsed the bundle of metal rush towards her and the white energy flicker out. Sophie didn't even have time to flinch before the transium smacked her solidly in the face.

The entire process had only lasted seven seconds.

There was silence, then familiar laughter erupted in the Hanger, bouncing of the steel walls as Arcee was unable to contain her amusement. The Twins voices soon joined hers as a dazed Sophie reached up to touch her even more bruised nose. The energy squirmed inside her chest sorely, retracting back and Sophie saw no need to stop it as she pulled herself to her feet, having found that she had tripped when the transium hit her.

"_Damn_ that was smooth," laughed Arcee.

Everyone in the Hanger seemed to be smirking at her spectacular failure. NEST office employees smiled into their clipboards, Alice was sneering and even Ironhide smirked for a full two seconds before whipping the Twins back into shape by reaching out and banging their heads together. First sign of acknowledgement from the weapon specialist so far.

Sophie glared at Arcee, fighting back the warmth creeping over her face. Sophie Sparks did not blush.

Gathering her dignity, Sophie blew a strand of hair from her face and turned away from all of them to see Wheeljack looking at her uncertainly, like he didn't know how to react.

"Well," he said, "That was new,"

"Shut up,"

It occurred to her that nobody really saw the truth in what just happened. All they saw was some stupid kid attempting to use one of Wheeljacks experiments, and failing horrifically. Fine for her.

Sophie opened her mouth to ask Wheeljack if she could keep the transium, but was interrupted by a loud buzzer over the speakers. Everyone paused as a voice crackled on.

"Attention to all key personal, emergency meeting in Hangar 2. Attention to all key personal, emergency meeting in Hangar 2. Immediate priority. Thank you."


End file.
